Living in Aberdeen Part 8

With my time in Aberdeen fast coming to an end, this was the penultimate weekend I had up here to go out an explore. With the weather looking promising, I managed to go out and do a few things.

Aberdeen Park Run

These are becoming a regular part of the weekly schedule now! This was my third parkrun along the beach, great as always. I managed to get a 5km time under 25mins, which I was pretty happy with. I'm always amazed at how many people come out on a Saturday morning to get involved, it's a really good running community and helps keep you motivated. For those interested in the numbers, here's a summary below:

Aberdeen Maritime Museum

On the Saturday afternoon I paid a visit to Aberdeen Maritime Museum. The museum tells the story of how the city of Aberdeen developed, from it's trading, fishing and shipbuilding to the discovery of North Sea oil and gas. There were all sorts to look at from various periods of history. I found it quite fascinating to understand how the city I've been living in over the past 2 month has evolved to become what it is in current day. Some of the highlights were the models of the ships that used to be built in the shipyard, as well as a 9m high model of the Murchison platform and some of the bits of kit that are commonly used in the offshore energy industry.

The museum is free to enter, which is always a plus, and is located by the harbour with a view the moored boats.

Stonehaven

With the good weather continuing into Sunday, my mate and I decided to pay a visit to Stonehaven, a small harbour town 15 minutes south of Aberdeen by train. It was one stop away from Aberdeen train station and easy to get to, with Stonehaven train station being a 15 minute walk from the coast. The town of Stonehaven is really nice, with a small functioning harbour for lifeboats, and sailing yachts. We saw quite a few yachts out there doing what looked like training drills on the water. While we were in Stonehaven, we decided to pay a visit to the ruins of Dunnottar Castle, a two and a half mile hike from the town centre.

A steep path from the town centre took us up onto a footpath rising above the town. Once at the top of the rise, there is a view of the ruins in the distance, but before reaching that we reached the war memorial on the summit of Black Hill. It commemorates the dead of both World War I and II, and the resemblance to a ruined classical temple was deliberate, intended to signify the many shortened and ruined lives caused by the wars.

Shortly after we thought we had found a shortcut to the path to Dunnottar Castle, turns out it just lead us into some thistles! Getting back onto the path, it took us around the coastline, again getting some dramatic coastline views with stacks, stumps and arches (if you did GCSE Geography you'll know exactly what I'm on about!).

We then reached the spot which gave us an impressive view of the ruins. Dunnottar Castle is on a large site that has 11 different buildings, sitting 160ft on top of a cliff. From around 400AD the first settlers began to settle on the site the castle is now on, and since then it has had the likes of the Vikings, William Wallace, Mary Queen of Scots and more recently the Prince of Wales visiting it. Full details of all the history can be found on the castle's website here.

Carron Fish Bar

Returning back to the town, I was definitely ready for some lunch! When in Stonehaven, we had to go visit the Carron Fish Bar - home of the deep fried Mars Bar! This was the original fish and chip shop where the deep fried Mars Bar was created, and went on to become a global sensation.

The origin story of the Mars Bar is one to mention. It goes back to 1995, where two Scottish boys went to the local chippy. One dared the other to ask if a Mars Bar could be battered and deep-fried. Turns out it can, and the idea stuck! Word then got around about this new creation, and the snack gained in popularity. Not sure if you could call it a snack though, seeing as it provides you with half your daily calories - 1200 to be precise!

My mate decided to go for it and order one, while I got some chips and decided to try out some deep fried pineapple fritters (not sure I would get those again!). All in all, I'm glad we payed a visit to this small fish and chip shop, sitting unsuspectingly in a small town on the east coast of Scotland, which ended up producing a world known food.

All in all, it was a great way to spend my penultimate weekend up here in Scotland on my internship. There's always something new to discover, find out and learn!

PS: Is there something that you'd like me to find out about or explore in Aberdeen in particular? Feel free to send me any suggestions,  to get in touch click here :)