Series of new trail guides launched to help people discover Aberdeen

A series of 10 new trail guides for Aberdeen were today launched which will help locals and visitors discover places full of heritage, beautiful green spaces, and connections to the Jacobite uprisings.

The family-friendly guides and maps, produced by Aberdeen City Council with help from community groups for some of them, are designed to encourage people to walk around our beautiful and historic city and discover – or rediscover – different aspects of the city.

They include The Green Trail, Aberdeen History Trail, Jacobite Trail, Bloody Aberdeen Trail, Donside Heritage Trail, Duthie Park Trail, Hazlehead Park Trail, Rosemount Local Area Trail, the Scottish Samurai Trail, and an updated Old Aberdeen Trail.

The new trail guides, many routes of which can be cycled, mean there is now a total of 16 in the series covering many historical and natural gems around the city.

Items in the new trail guides include where the poet Lord Byron attended school, the history of the inventor of modern Japan industry and his connections to Aberdeen, the role the city played in both the Auld and Young Pretender Jacobite uprisings, the famous Crombie coat was invented in a city mill, and where The Gruffalo can be found in a park.

One of the guides tells of darker parts of the city’s history including the execution of witches, along with beheadings and drowning of criminals, body-snatching from graves, and the location of where several hundred children were kept until they were sold as slaves and shipped to America.

The Lord Provost of Aberdeen Barney Crockett said: “We have an amazing history in Aberdeen along with many green areas and stunning buildings so it’s fantastic these trail guides have been produced.

“We are lucky that Aberdeen is quite a compact city for walking about in and we want to encourage people to get out and continue to walk or cycle more and we hope these trail guides help folk to get out there and learn what’s in the city.

“I’m sure the themes of the new trail guides will be very popular and they are a fantastic way for people to find out more about our beautiful city.”

The trail guides and maps are available through the links www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/trails. The guides are in digital format just now and physical versions will be made available as coronavirus restrictions lift.

The new trail guides complement the existing ones which are Aberdeen Coastal Trail, People & Places Trail, Sculpture & Curios Trail, Boundary Stones Trail, Aberdeen Granite Trail, Old Aberdeen Trail, and Aberdeen Maritime Trail.

The trail guides project is funded by Smarter Choices, Smarter Places (SCSP), which is Paths for All’s programme to increase active and sustainable travel throughout Scotland. The programme is grant-funded by Transport Scotland. The current SCSP match fund is Civitas Portis, a European Union funded project that aims to implement sustainable mobility measures, in participating port cities, to improve urban attractiveness.