Aberdeen, United Kingdom: Self-Guided Walking Tour

The best things to do in Aberdeen include exploring the medieval streets of Old Aberdeen, admiring the city’s granite landmarks, and discovering its maritime, military and artistic collections. From St Machar’s Cathedral and King’s College Chapel to the harbour and River Dee, Aberdeen combines Scottish history with a strong connection to the North Sea. Neywo offers a free audio guide for Aberdeen with 87 narrated places.

What to see in Aberdeen

Explore Old Aberdeen

Old Aberdeen preserves a historic atmosphere just north of the modern city centre. Its most important landmark is St Machar’s Cathedral, whose Christian origins are associated with Saint Machar and reach back to the sixth century. Although it has not been a bishop’s seat since 1690, it remains a high kirk of the Church of Scotland.

Inside, the cloister ceiling is decorated with heraldic shields. Among the medieval European coats of arms are the distinctive chains of the Kingdom of Navarre, suggesting that Navarrese royalty may have contributed to the cathedral’s construction.

The area is also home to the University of Aberdeen, King’s College Chapel, the Old Town House and the Cruickshank Botanic Garden. Together, these places give Old Aberdeen its distinctive combination of university life, religious history and historic streets.

See the Mercat Cross in Castlegate

In central Aberdeen, Mercat Cross has stood in the Castlegate since 1686. Designed by local architect John Montgomery, it is an open-arched hexagonal structure topped by Scotland’s royal unicorn.

Medallions at the base show Scottish monarchs from James the First through to James the Seventh. The monument also witnessed a major moment during the Jacobite rising: in 1715, James Stuart, the Old Pretender, was proclaimed king here. A local legend says that the ghost of a unicorn circles the Castlegate on a full-moon night.

Visit Provost Skene’s House

Provost Skene’s House is the oldest surviving townhouse in Aberdeen. Commissioned by the merchant Matthew Lumsden, its construction began in 1545, and the medieval core remains behind later alterations.

The attic gallery contains a Renaissance painted ceiling with strapwork decoration and religious scenes commissioned by the Lumsden family. The house was remodeled in the mid-1700s, when larger windows were added, and it has been a museum since 1953. Its displays trace Aberdeen’s history through period rooms and themed exhibitions.

Admire Aberdeen’s theatres and civic buildings

His Majesty’s Theatre stands on Rosemount Viaduct opposite Union Terrace Gardens. Designed by Frank Matcham, it opened in 1906 in the Free Renaissance style. Its granite façade features a copper-domed tower, while figures representing Tragedy and Comedy stand above the entrance.

The theatre hosts touring West End musicals, international ballet, comedy, drama and local productions. Alongside the nearby Music Hall, it is also one of the principal venues for the Aberdeen International Youth Festival.

Nearby, Central Library has stood on Rosemount Viaduct since 1892. Designed by George Watt in the Neo-Renaissance style, it was opened by Andrew Carnegie, who contributed £2,000 towards its construction. Its local history collection includes more than 15,000 photographs, maps, birth and death records, and local newspapers.

Central Library forms part of a trio of civic buildings with Saint Mark’s Church and His Majesty’s Theatre. Their local nicknames are Education, Salvation and Damnation: the library represents Education, the church Salvation and the theatre Damnation.

Discover Aberdeen Art Gallery

Aberdeen Art Gallery is the largest public gallery in northern Scotland. Designed by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, it opened in 1884. Its central hall contains granite columns, each quarried from a different part of the north-east.

Mackenzie added the sculpture court in 1905, bringing more natural light into the building. The western wing became a war memorial, with books of remembrance recording those lost in the two world wars and later conflicts.

The collection expanded significantly in 1900 after granite merchant Alexander Macdonald donated his private art collection. In 2020, the gallery was one of five winners of the Art Fund Museum of the Year Award.

Learn about the sea at Aberdeen Maritime Museum

On historic Shiprow, close to the harbour, Aberdeen Maritime Museum explores more than a thousand years of the city’s relationship with the North Sea. Its subjects include sailing ships, shipbuilding, fishing, the development of Aberdeen harbour and the city’s role in the North Sea oil and gas industry.

The museum occupies a group of historic buildings, including Provost Ross’s House, which dates from 1593, and a former Trinity Congregational Church. The architecture reflects the way Aberdeen’s maritime heritage has been preserved and given new uses.

Visit the Tolbooth Museum

The Tolbooth Museum occupies one of Aberdeen’s oldest surviving buildings. Built between 1616 and 1629 as a prison attached to the courthouse, it stands beside the Town House and is part of a Category A listed complex.

The original cells remain, with barred windows, heavy doors and narrow spaces. Exhibits explore crime and punishment in Aberdeen, including the city’s first guillotine. The prison held people accused of witchcraft, Jacobite rebels and children sentenced to transportation as indentured labourers in America.

Explore science, zoology and military history

Families and curious visitors can head to the Aberdeen Science Centre, housed in a former tram depot on Constitution Street. After a major renovation, it reopened in November 2020 with a mezzanine floor, six new zones and more than 60 interactive exhibits. Its OPITO Theatre of Energy is the UK’s first immersive theatre experience of its kind, and the centre also features a humanoid talking robot.

The Zoology Museum at the University of Aberdeen presents zoological specimens gathered through more than two centuries of biological research. Displays include taxidermy, skeletons, study skins, fluid-preserved specimens and models, with highlights such as a Bengal tiger, great ape skeletons and blue whale remains. The collection is recognized as being of National Significance to Scotland.

At the Gordon Highlanders Museum, the history of one of Scotland’s best-known regiments unfolds through weapons, uniforms and military objects. The regiment’s roots go back to 1794, while the museum’s galleries include an armory, a recreated Officers’ Mess, the Silver Room and the Grant Room. The museum occupies a 19th-century villa purchased by the painter Sir George Reid.

Spend time beside the River Dee

The River Dee rises in the Cairngorm Mountains on the plateau of Braeriach and flows through southern Aberdeenshire before reaching the North Sea at Aberdeen. Its valley is known as Deeside, while the stretch between Braemar and Banchory became known as Royal Deeside after Queen Victoria visited in 1848.

The river’s history is older still. The ancient geographer Claudius Ptolemy recorded its name as Deva in the second century AD, a word meaning goddess. Its journey from the Cairngorms to Aberdeen connects the city with the landscapes and history of northeast Scotland.

Explore Aberdeen with Neywo

Neywo makes it easy to follow an Aberdeen self-guided walking tour without joining a group or following a fixed timetable. The app has four walking tours, one bus route and one bike route in the city:

• Four walking tours, covering between 2 and 3.36 km, lasting from 51 to 97 minutes, with 4 to 12 narrated stops.
• One bus route of 4.1 km, lasting 18 minutes, with 9 narrated stops.
• One bike route of 2 km, lasting 10 minutes, with 2 narrated stops.

The walks cover central Aberdeen, Old Aberdeen, the route from Castlegate to Footdee, and Duthie Park and the Brig o’ Dee. The bus route connects the city centre with Old Aberdeen, while the bike route crosses Duthie Park. Neywo’s stories play as you reach each place, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule. Narration is available in 11 languages.

Download Neywo and explore Aberdeen with an audio guide that tells the story of each place as you arrive. You can also continue discovering Scotland, from Edinburgh and Glasgow to Inverness.