45 Facts About Aberdeen

1.

Aberdeen is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country.

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2.

Aberdeen has a long, sandy coastline and features an oceanic climate, with cool summers and mild, rainy winters.

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3.

Since the discovery of North Sea oil in 1969, Aberdeen has been known as the offshore oil capital of Europe.

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4.

Aberdeen received Royal burgh status from David I of Scotland, which transformed the city economically.

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5.

Aberdeen Heliport is one of the busiest commercial heliports in the world, and the seaport is the largest in the north-east part of Scotland.

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6.

In 2018, Aberdeen was found to be the best city in the UK to start a business in a study released by card payment firm Paymentsense.

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7.

Aberdeen is usually described as within the historical Pictish territory, and became Gaelic-speaking at some time in the medieval period.

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8.

Old Aberdeen is the approximate location of Aberdon, the first settlement of Aberdeen; this literally means "the mouth of the Don".

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9.

Aberdeen is locally governed by Aberdeen City Council, which comprises forty-five councillors who represent the city's wards and is headed by the Lord Provost.

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10.

Aberdeen has far milder winter temperatures than one might expect for its northern location, although statistically it is the coldest city in the UK.

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11.

Conversely, an Aberdeen postcode has the second highest number of millionaires of any postcode in the UK.

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12.

Aberdeen has two other cathedrals: St Mary's Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Gothic style, erected in 1859.

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13.

Traditionally, Aberdeen was home to fishing, textile mills, shipbuilding and paper-making.

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14.

Until the 1970s, most of Aberdeen's leading industries dated from the 18th century; mainly these were textiles, foundry work, shipbuilding and paper-making, the oldest industry in the city, with paper having been first made there in 1694.

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15.

Aberdeen granite was used to build the terraces of the Houses of Parliament and Waterloo Bridge in London.

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16.

The Fisheries Research Services are headquartered in Aberdeen, and there is a marine research laboratory there.

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17.

Aberdeen is well regarded for the agricultural and soil research carried out at The James Hutton Institute, which has close links to the city's two universities.

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18.

Aberdeen has become a major world centre for undersea petroleum technology.

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19.

Aberdeen had been a major maritime centre throughout the 19th century, when a group of local entrepreneurs launched the first steam-powered trawler.

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20.

Figures released in 2016 ranked Aberdeen as having the second highest number of patents processed per person in the UK.

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21.

In March 2004, Aberdeen was awarded Fairtrade City status by the Fairtrade Foundation.

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22.

Aberdeen's architecture is known for its principal use during the Victorian era of granite, which has led to its local nickname of the Granite City.

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23.

Aberdeen has long been famous for its 45 parks and gardens, and citywide floral displays which include two million roses, eleven million daffodils and three million crocuses.

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24.

However, despite recent spurious reports, Aberdeen has never been banned from the Britain in Bloom competition.

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25.

Aberdeen has hosted several theatres throughout its history, some of which have subsequently been converted or destroyed.

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26.

Aberdeen Harbour is important as the largest in the north of Scotland and serves the ferry route to Orkney and Shetland.

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27.

Aberdeen is the global headquarters of FirstGroup plc, having grown from the GRT Group.

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28.

Aberdeen is connected to the UK National Cycle Network, and has a track to the south connecting to cities such as Dundee and Edinburgh and one to the north that forks about from the city into two different tracks heading to Inverness and Fraserburgh respectively.

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29.

Aberdeen has two universities, the ancient University of Aberdeen, and Robert Gordon University, a modern university often referred to as RGU.

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30.

Today, Aberdeen is consistently ranked among the top 200 universities in the world and is ranked within the top 20 universities in the United Kingdom.

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31.

Aberdeen was named the 2019 Scottish University of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide.

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32.

Aberdeen is home to two artistic schools: Gray's School of Art, founded in 1886, which is one of the oldest established colleges of art in the UK.

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33.

Independent primary schools in Aberdeen include Albyn School, Robert Gordon's College, St Margaret's School for Girls, and the International School of Aberdeen.

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34.

Aberdeen Student Show, performed annually without interruption since 1921, under the auspices of the Aberdeen Students' Charities Campaign, is the longest-running of its kind in the United Kingdom.

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35.

In February 2012 the University of Aberdeen hosted the Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival, the longest-running folk festival in the United Kingdom.

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36.

Aberdeen is home to Spectra, an annual light festival hosted in different locations across the city.

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37.

Aberdeen is home to Nuart, a festival showcasing street art around the city.

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38.

Aberdeen is home to Scotland's oldest newspaper the Press and Journal, a local and regional newspaper first published in 1747.

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39.

BBC Scotland has a network studio production base in the city's Beechgrove area, and BBC Aberdeen produces The Beechgrove Potting Shed for radio while Tern Television produces The Beechgrove Garden.

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40.

Under the management of Alex Ferguson, Aberdeen was a major force in British football during the 1980s.

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41.

Aberdeen hosted Caledonia Reds, a Scottish rugby team, before they merged with the Glasgow Warriors in 1998.

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42.

Royal Aberdeen hosted the Scottish Open in 2014, won by Justin Rose.

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43.

Aberdeen Lynx are an ice hockey team that plays in the Scottish National League and is based at the Linx Ice Arena.

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44.

In common with many other major towns and cities in the UK, Aberdeen has an active roller derby league, Granite City Roller Derb.

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45.

Aberdeen Roughnecks American football club is a new team that started in 2012 and is the first team that Aberdeen has witnessed since the Granite City Oilers that began in 1986 and were wound up in the mid-1990s.

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