Aberdeen. Silver City with the Golden Sands, The Granite City, The Jewel of the north-east, Aiberdeen, Aber Daber Deen, Dandy Deen, Aberdream, Sheepside, the Oil/ Energy Capital of Europe…whatever you call the city, it is where many of us have found a home.
The area around Aberdeen has been settled for at least 8,000 years, when prehistoric villages lay around the mouths of the rivers Dee and Don.
Now while this collection of fascinating facts is far from complete or conclusive we’ve compiled a list that will help you in any pub quiz about the City, provide insight into the history of the area and bring a smile to the face of any Aberdonian.
Here’s part 1 if you missed it.
14. An Aberdeen shoemaker was the first to fit rubber heels.
15.The first person to can salmon was John Weir of Aberdeen.
16.Craigievar Castle was the model for Walt Disney’s fairytale castles.
17.In 1942 the people of Aberdeen raised over £2m to pay for the building of HMS Scylla as part of the war effort.
That’s the equivalent of £57m today. Aberdeen’s adopted warship was granted the Freedom of the City in 1992 and is now Europe’s first artificial reef.
18.Reel of Tulioch one of Scotland’s most famous Highland dances was invented by the congregation of a church in Tulioch when the minister was late for a service and they were unable to gain access to the church.
19.Opera star Mary Garden was born in Aberdeen in 1874.
20.In 1905, Aberdeen City Fire Brigade purchased Scotland’s first motorised fire appliance.
This Merryweather steamer wasn’t motorised but it did work in Aberdeen, along with the chap with the spiffing moustache there. By 1923 Aberdeen had a fully motorised Fire Brigade.
21.The National Hyperbaric Centre (NHC) is Europe’s leading hyperbaric testing, training and research centre, and is located at the heart of the North Sea offshore oil and gas industry in Aberdeen.
22.The University of Aberdeen has been ranked as one of the 200 top universities in the world by the Times Higher Educational Supplement.
23.The University of Aberdeen has produced three Nobel prize winners and shared a fourth.
24.In the last decade The Robert Gordon University (RGU) has consistently been one of the top universities in the UK for graduate employment.
25.Aberdeen Grammar School was founded in 1263 and is one of the oldest schools in Britain.
26.By 1858 Aberdeen had two universities, the same number as the whole of England.
27.James Clerk Maxwell, the father of electronics, and Nobel prize winning G. P. Thomson were professors at the University of Aberdeen.
28.The Robert Gordon University launched the UK’s first degree course in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.
29.Thomas Reid: one of the Scottish Enlightenment’s most influential philosophers and whose work influenced the foundations of the American Republic was a graduate and tutor at the University of Aberdeen.
30.Aberdeen has won the Britain in Bloom contest a record ten times.
31.Planted in 1935, the maze in Hazlehead Park is Scotland’s oldest.
32.Over 100,000 roses grow in the rose mound at Duthie Park.
33.Waterloo Bridge and the Terraces of the Houses of Parliament are built of Aberdeen granite.
