Aberdeen, SCT - Postcode - AB22 8LL

Aberdeen

As the third most populous settlement in all of Scotland, the city of Aberdeen is a significant economic and cultural hub in the region of North East Scotland. With an anticipated population of 198,590 for the city of Aberdeen and 227,560 for the local council area by the year 2020, Aberdeen is expected to rank as the United Kingdom's 39th most populous urban area. Location: 93 miles (150 kilometers) northeast of Edinburgh and 398 miles (641 kilometers) north of London; northernmost major city in the United Kingdom. Aberdeen is located on a long stretch of sandy coast and experiences a temperate maritime climate with mild, wet winters and warm, dry summers due to its proximity to the ocean. 

Many of the structures constructed in Aberdeen between the middle of the 18th and the middle of the 20th centuries used grey granite from nearby quarries.

Aberdeen has been known as the "offshore oil capital of Europe" ever since oil was discovered in the North Sea in 1969. It is estimated that people have been living in the area around Aberdeen for at least the past 6,000 years, thanks to the discovery of ancient settlements near the river mouths of the Dee and Don. 

David I of Scotland (1124-1153) granted Aberdeen the title of Royal Burgh, which sparked an economic boom. The oil industry and the port of Aberdeen have supplanted the city's traditional industries, such as fishing, papermaking, shipbuilding, and textiles. Aberdeen's seaport is the largest in the north-east of Scotland, and its heliport is among the busiest commercial heliports in the world. Robert Gordon University, established in the Garthdee neighborhood in 1992, is the younger of Aberdeen's two universities; the older University of Aberdeen was established in 1495 in Old Aberdeen.

Aberdeen was the only city in Scotland to receive this honor from HSBC in 2012, when the bank named it a "super city" and a leading economic center for the United Kingdom. Aberdeen was named by card payment company Paymentsense as the UK's best city to launch a business in 2018.

Geography

Despite its strategic location between two river mouths, the city's bedrock is not particularly exposed. The oil industry has brought a large number of geoscientists to the area, but they still only have a sketchy idea of what lies beneath the city, leaving local geologists in a bit of a bind. Coastal cliffs to the south reveal high-grade Grampian Group metamorphic rocks; to the southwest and west, extensive granites intrude into similar high-grade schists; and to the north, gabbroic complexes intrude the metamorphics.

Very limited geophysical work, along with building-related and riverbank exposures, and the presence of Devonian "Old Red" sandstones and silts all point to the site being located on an inlier. The city expanded past the (inferred) limits of the outlier onto the surrounding metamorphic/igneous complexes formed during the Dalradian period (approximately 480-600 million years ago), with sporadic areas of igneous Diorite granites to be found, such as at the Rubislaw quarry, which was used to construct much of the Victorian parts of the city.

Aberdeen's coastline consists of two rivers, the Dee and the Don, and a long stretch of sandy beach between them that transitions into high sand dunes to the north of the Don and stretches as far as Fraserburgh. To the south of the Dee are steep rocky cliff faces with only minor pebble and shingle beaches in deep inlets. Several granite cliffs on the south coast have been quarried in the past, providing excellent rock climbing and stunning views.

South of the River Dee, the city of Aberdeen encompasses the former burghs of Old Aberdeen, New Aberdeen, Woodside, and the Royal Burgh of Torry, for a total area of 185.7 km2 (71.7 sq mi). This resulted in a population density of 1,225 per square kilometer in 2017. The city sprawls across a number of hills, with Castle Hill, St. Catherine's Hill, and Windmill Hill serving as its original nexuses.

Economy

Aberdeen has a rich industrial history that includes fishing, textile manufacturing, shipbuilding, and paper making. The need for these sectors has largely been met by others. In the last three decades, high-tech developments in the electronics design and development industry, research in agriculture and fishing, and the oil industry have all contributed significantly to Aberdeen's economic boom.

Until the 1970s, the majority of Aberdeen's major industries had their roots in the 18th century. These included textiles, foundry work, shipbuilding, and paper making, the latter of which dates back to 1694, making it the city's oldest industry. Since the Donside Paper Mill closed in 2001 and the Davidson Mill closed in 2005, the paper industry has diminished, leaving the Stoneywood Paper Mill with a workforce of around 500. The closing of Richards of Aberdeen in 2004 marked the end of the textile industry in the United Kingdom.

Throughout its more than three hundred year history, the Rubislaw quarry has been a major source of grey granite for paving setts, kerb and building stones, monuments, and other decorative items. The terraces of London's Houses of Parliament and Waterloo Bridge are both made of granite quarried in Aberdeen. In 1971, quarrying was ended for good. For the past 40 years, rain has collected in the quarry, and the current owners have finally started pumping it out so that they can build a museum there.

Once the dominant industry, in-shore fishing has since been overtaken by deep-sea fisheries, which received a major boost from technological advancements throughout the 20th century. Overfishing and the use of the harbor by oil support vessels have reduced catches, and as a result the port's prominence as a fishing center has declined in comparison to that of Peterhead and Fraserburgh, located further to the north. While the main office of the Fisheries Research Services is in Aberdeen, the marine research facility is located in Torry.

The James Hutton Institute (previously known as the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute) has strong ties to the city's two universities and is widely recognized for its groundbreaking work in agricultural and soil research. In Aberdeen, you can find the Rowett Research Institute, which is a prestigious center for research into food and nutrition. There are a lot of people working in the life sciences field, and three Nobel laureates have come from the city. 

Aberdeen is currently undergoing a rebranding effort to shift its image from "Oil Capital of Europe" to "Energy Capital of Europe" as oil reserves in the North Sea decline, new energy sources are being developed, and technology is being transferred from the oil industry into renewable energy and other sectors. Scottish Enterprise's "Energetica" initiative aims to hasten this development. In 2013, Aberdeen had already established itself as one of the most important hubs for offshore petroleum research and development in the world.