The history of Aberdeen Harbour in 30 archive photos

Press and Journal

a day ago

The Tall Ships success has shone the spotlight on the history of Aberdeen Harbour, which has been at the heart of the city for nearly 900 years.
For many visitors, the Tall Ships has been a rare opportunity to spend time in Aberdeen's historic dockland, a hub of commerce for centuries.
Aberdeen Harbour, now known as the Port of Aberdeen, holds the incredible record for being the oldest existing business in Britain having been founded in 1136.
As early as the 13th Century, Aberdeen's trade was wholly sea-borne, making it the commercial capital of the north of Scotland.
The historic harbour also played a crucial role in the building of King's College in Old Aberdeen.
Bishop Elphinstone himself sent wool, salmon, barrels of trout and money to the continent from the harbour in exchange for carts, wheelbarrows and gunpowder needed to quarry the stone for the college.
By the 16th Century, Aberdeen's merchants were trading with the Baltic regions of Prussia and Pomerania, and Poland.
As the 17th Century approached, the harbour's one quay was inadequate to meet this demand.
King James the VI intervened and issued a charter to repair the pier, shore and create a bulwark at Torry to deepen the entrance to the harbour.
In just over 200 years, until the last shipyard closed in 1992, 3,000 ships were built in Aberdeen.
Many of these were built under the Aberdeen Line, including the famous clipper Thermopylae.
As technology advanced, so did the harbour, with additions like lighthouses, new docks and steam power.
The rapid growth of the fishing industry in the 19th Century made Aberdeen Harbour the chief centre of the Scottish fish trade.
In 1921, historian Victorian Elizabeth Clark published 'The Port of Aberdeen', a comprehensive book looking at the city's maritime heritage.
She said: 'If the history of the port in the twentieth century reveals as great a measure of progress as that which marked the nineteenth, if it produces changes and improvements in the commercial life of the city as beneficial as those of last century, the continued prosperity of Aberdeen as a seaport will be assured.'
While days of shipbuilding, coal deliveries and the quayside railway may be long gone, Clark could never have foreseen the discovery of oil.
Oil brought some of the greatest changes to Aberdeen Harbour through extensive modernisation which saw the port rebuilt.
Now the Port of Aberdeen is as busy as ever. In 2023, it became Britain's oldest-existing business with the country's newest harbour – Aberdeen South Harbour.