Next Tours

OUR TOURS HAVE FINISHED FOR THIS SEASON - WE RETURN AGAIN AT EASTER 2019

We also cannot advise customers of any dates for the new shedule until at least late February, thus any enquiries of that nature cannot be answered at present

NO BOOKING ACCEPTED FOR PRIVATE TOURS UNTIL MARCH 2019.

FRIDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2019:
GHOSTS & GHOULS OF THE AULTOUN 

SOLD OUT

STARTS: 7.30PM
DURATION: approx 2hr
MEETING POINT: Outside Kings College, High Street, Old Aberdeen (MAP) 

MONDAY 18 MARCH 2019:
ABERDEEN'S BORDERLANDS: GALLOWGATE TOUR

Kicking off 2019's main walking tour season with our newest route from last year; the Gallowgate was the ancient road from the city's gallows, on the site since the early 1200s, replaced in 1500 by Gallows Hill, now Errol Street.  So little remains of this northern border area of Aberdeen, yet there are still stories to be told of the Quakers' burial ground, Soapy Ogston's Candle and Soap Factory, St Margaret's convent, school and church, founded by rector, John Comper, father of Ninian, the great architect, and missing sites like Mar's Castle, the Middle School and the medieval tanneries, all of which are now under modern developments, and rounding off at Marischal Square with the real reason Broadgait gets its name and how it was originally part of the Gallowgate. Full tour descriptor HERE. 

MEET: OUTSIDE NESCol/ ABERDEEN COLLEGE, AB25 1BN (MAP)
STARTS: 7.30pm (arrive at least 10min before)
DURATION: approx 2hrs
TICKETS: Adults £10/ Concessions £8; Click HERE to book online or book in person at the Visit Scotland hub on Shiprow

SATURDAY 23 MARCH: MINI TOURS

ROSEMOUNT MINI RAMBLE - 11AM

Developed from the full length Rosemount Ramble, focusing on the hidden gem of Mackie Place, the 18th century cul-de-sac owned by hide-skinner, Robert Mackie, who commissioned the distinctive ogee-shaped "White House" and the remaining tenement of no's 4-5, and Jack's Brae. Three hundred years of history in 60min! Full tour descriptor HERE. 

MEET: Outside Cult of Coffee, 28 Esslemont Avenue (arrive at least 10min before, get a takeaway! MAP)
STARTS: 11am
DURATION: 1hr
TICKETS: All tickets £5; Click HERE to book online or book in person at the Visit Scotland hub on Shiprow

FITTIE: ABERDEEN'S PLANNED VILLAGE (MINI TOUR) - 2PM

Beginning on Pocra Quay near the site of the original Block House, a stone fort first erected in the 15th century to protect the city from "English invaders", we follow the fall and rise of the fisher residents of the Kirktoun of Futty, who forced the council into providing them a new home when harbour development threatened to obliterate the old village of Pockraw in the late 18th century.  Full tour details HERE.

MEET: Footdee War Memorial on seafront, Pocra Quay (MAP)
STARTS: 2pm
DURATION: 1hr
TICKETS: All tickets £5; Click HERE to book online or book in person at the Visit Scotland hub on Shiprow

WEDNESDAY 27 MARCH:
OLD ABERDEEN'S ARCHITECTURAL SECRETS

An old favourite - indeed this route is 8 years old this year! Learn about the 'Aultoun' and its buildings, from the medieval Snow Kirk and Kings College to the artisan housing of the 18th and 19th century, and the hidden secrets of the university campus, including the secret Snow Kirk, the Macrobert Memorial Garden, and the delightful 18th century buildings of the Chanonry. Full details here.

MEET: Kings College Entry Path, High Street, Old Aberdeen (MAP)
STARTS: 7.30pm (arrive at least 10min before) 
DURATION: approx 2hrs 
TICKETS: Adults £10/ Concessions £8; Click HERE to book online or book in person at the Visit Scotland hub on Shiprow

SATURDAY 30 MARCH: MINI TOURS

OLD TORRY - THE LOST VILLAGES - 11AM

A mini-tour set in the historic royal burgh of Torry covering almost eight centuries of history in one hour!  Starting at old St Fittick’s Kirk which was built in the 13th century, and following a direct line over the Balnagask Motte, down Baxter Street and into the site of the Victorian fisher village. Includes tales of the Davidsons, last lairds of Torry; the Dee Ferry Disaster and the medieval fisher village of Lower Torry which disappeared in 1876 due to harbour developments. Full tour descriptor here. 

MEET: Old St Fittick's Kirk (ruin), St Fittick's Road, Torry AB11 8TP (MAP)
STARTS: 11am
DURATION: 1hr
TICKETS: All tickets £5; Click HERE  to book online or book in person at the Visit Scotland hub on Shiprow

DUTHIE PARK - SECRETS & STORIES - 2PM

Set in Ferryhill's pleasure park, which was given to the city by Miss Elizabeth Crombie Duthie in 1881. Duthie Park is full of artefacts, stories, and scenes. Join us for a one-hour wander around, looking at things like: "The Bridge That Flitted", "The Fountainhall Cistern", "Arthurseat", "Hygeia's Statue". Full tour details here.

MEET: Polmuir Road Gates, Duthie Park, Ferryhill AB11 7TH (MAP)
STARTS: 2pm
DURATION: 1hr
TICKETS: All tickets £5; Click HERE  to book online or book in person at the Visit Scotland hub on Shiprow

 More dates will be added very soon!

Please note, if dates are not shown it means there are no tours planned yet for those dates or they are free for private bookings.  

Please Read On !

News

Reminiscence Talks - Aberdeen Lang Syne at Mark Bush Court

We are going to be delivering the full series of our reminscence talks starting in November at local council sheltered housing complex, Mark Bush Court in Kincorth.  The residents have a very busy social calendar and are always on the look out for interesting visitors.  Dr Fiona-Jane Brown, our director will be presenting the talks including "Lost Shops", "Lost Cinemas", "The Blitz", "A Virtual Pub Crawl of Aberdeen", "Dancehalls and Ballrooms", "Trams, Buses and Trains", and "Sneezes, Wheezes and Diseases", the potted history of our local medical services.  

Residents pay a small fee to cover their entertainments, but anyone willing to sponsor these sessions to allow them to build up their event kitty would be most welcome! 

Our newly updated listing with VISIT ABERDEENSHIRE is now live.  Our friends at this local tourism promotion agency have been snowed under with updates to their business pages, so if you've recently visited it and found obsolete information, it's now been fixed! Click HERE to view and let us know if you spot any errors in future! 

Our Publications

Dr Fiona-Jane Brown, director of Hidden Aberdeen Tours has published three books on local history in the city and shire.  

BACK IN PRINT AFTER AN 18 MONTH ABSENCE!! 

Publishers, Black & White of Edinburgh have finally been able to bring back this very popular original local history book which was inspired by the walking tours and Dr Fiona-Jane Brown's blog which was hosted by STV Aberdeen way back in 2012! Due back in bookshops by mid-June 2017!

Aberdeen is rich in history, much of it hidden. Now, in Hidden Aberdeen, Dr Fiona-Jane Brown explores the city through new eyes, revealing new stories from the past and bringing the modern city to life. There's the last resting place of Robert Hitchens, who was at the wheel of the Titanic when it struck an iceberg; Royal connections including the Old Pretender, James Francis Edward Stuart's visit to local ship owner, Skipper Scott, when he discovered from his commander, the Earl of Mar, that all was not well with the Jacobite Army; the brutal murder of a monk by so-called reformers and the strange nineteenth-century animal cruelty case against the city's Jewish community. There's also the city's intriguing connection with Millwall FC and the place where medieval criminals were hanged. This fascinating book will open your eyes to the hidden, the forgotten and the abandoned which lie under your feet as you walk round the city today.

Hidden Aberdeen: History on your Doorstep and Under Your Feet is the first local history publication from Dr Fiona-Jane Brown, founder of Hidden Aberdeen Tours.

 < Click to purchase from Amazon

Following on from the bestselling Hidden Aberdeen, Fiona-Jane Brown now presents a brand new volume, Hidden Aberdeenshire: The Coast, exploring the rich history and the most fascinating, quirky stories from the windswept lands beside the North Sea.

There's the story of James Keith, brother of the 10th Earl or Marischal, whose statue stands in Peterhead - but few know why; Captain Gray's House, where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle took up a post as ship's surgeon on a whaler owned by one of the most successful whaling captains of the nineteenth century; the tale of the Frasers, the family who lost their castle and generations later reclaimed it; the mystery of the university that never was; plus many more.

Hidden Aberdeenshire: The Coast is a fascinating and entertaining collection of forgotten history and anecdotes from Scotland's North-East, pieced together by historian Dr Fiona-Jane Brown.

 < Click to purchase from Amazon

Following on from Hidden Aberdeenshire: The Coast, this new volume moves inland to tell the stories of the countryside, from the fertile farmland of Buchan to the high peaks of the Cairngorm Mountains.

Visit Macbeth's reputed grave at Lumphanan, where he was supposedly buried by his supporters after being killed by Malcolm Canmore, later Malcolm III of Scotland; meet the Maiden Stone's forgotten companion, the larger-than-life Persephone sculpture, near the foot of Bennachie and learn the significance of the Kintore Arms Public House to a terrible murder back in 1863.

Come and visit the two most fascinating burials in Braemar cemetery, of poor crofter, Peter Grant who fought at Culloden and outlived Bonnie Prince Charlie, and the Black Colonel, John Farquharson of lnverey, who made his "bed" in the rocks above his castle, but did not lie peaceful in his grave after death.

Learn about Trooper Smart of Kintore who died in South Africa as a result of a lion attack; the hidden stone circle discovered in Methlick Wood by a local dowser and Wormy Hillock, an early site of Pagan worship near Rhynie.

Join historian and guide Dr Fiona-Jane Brown for these and many more quirky, forgotten and hidden tales, this time from Aberdeenshire's landward districts.

 < Click to purchase from Amazon

Hidden Aberdeen Tours (founded 2011) is wholly owned by Dr Fiona-Jane Brown as a sole-trading operation which occasionally works with contractors.

Contact details

Phone: 07572 582198
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