©Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd Northeast Scotland Why Go? DUNDEE & ANGUS ...225 Many visitors pass by this corner of the country in their Dundee ..................... 225 headlong rush to the tourist honeypots of Loch Ness and Glamis Castle & Skye. But they’re missing out on a part of Scotland that’s as Village ....................... 232 beautiful and diverse as the more obvious attractions of the western Highlands and islands. Arbroath ................... 232 Within its bounds you’ll fi nd two of Scotland’s four larg- Angus Glens ............. 235 est cities – Dundee, the city of jute, jam and journalism, ABERDEENSHIRE & the cradle of some of Britain’s favourite comic characters, MORAY ...................... 237 and home to Captain Scott’s Antarctic research ship, the Aberdeen ...................237 Discovery; and Aberdeen, the granite city, an economic Deeside ......................247 powerhouse fuelled by the riches of North Sea oil. Angus is a region of rich farmland and scenic glens dot- Strathdon ................. 250 ted with the mysterious stones left behind by the ancient Moray ........................ 253 Picts, while Aberdeenshire and Moray are home to the greatest concentration of Scottish Baronial castles in the country, and dozens of distilleries along the River Spey. Best Places to Stay » Glen Clova Hotel (p235 ) W h e n t o G o » 24 Shorehead (p 246 ) Aberdeen » Auld Kirk (p 248 ) °C/°F Te m p Rainfall Inches/mm 40/104 10/250 » City Wharf Apartments (p 241 ) 30/86 8/200 20/68 6/150 Best Places to Eat 10/50 4/100 2/50 » T o l b o o t h ( p 2 4 6 ) 0/32 -10/14 0 » Café 52 (p 242 ) J FDNOSAJJMAM » Metro (p 228 ) » Gathering Place (p 250 ) June/July Classic September December boats large and Braemar Gather- Spectacular small fill Portsoy ing (Highland fireball ceremony harbour for the games); whisky in Stonehaven on Scottish Wooden and music festival Hogmanay (New Boat Festival. in Dufftown. Year’s Eve). 2°W #\ 3°W Moray Lossiemouth Firth Portsoy Crovie #] #\ #\ #\ Pennan 224 #\ #\ #\ #\ Fraserburgh #\ Findhorn Elgin #÷ #] Fordyce Banff Macduff Gardenstown N #\ /·A98 or #\ Fochabers th Forres U A90 New #\ g /· y ie e W p Pitsligo Lossie S Aberchirder #\ MORAY #\ Tu r r i f f #\ Mintlaw Keith D #\ A95 e New Deer #\ /· ve #\ a ron l /·A96 Peterhead Is y n Spe a Fyvie Castle h t #\ #\ V# Huntly Y Hatton #5 Dufftown #\ n o Speyside r g e i Haddo a #â h v Distillery c e r i House D C Grantown- Tour d U d f ri i o e Oldmeldrum on-Spey on F #\ v #\ n #\ Rhynie r A u B G adi n Livet Kildrummy e Bur Castle N #\ V# Don e Tomintoul Kintore t #\ #\ h Lecht Ski ch Alford y ilea #å Resort #\ Tu Strathdon Al lt V# Craigievar V#Castle Castle Fraser Corgarff V# #^ Aberdeen Castle Grampian ABERDEENSHIRE Mountains Gairn Crathes /·A93 Royal Deeside Castle #\ Balmoral #4 Aboyne V# #\ Cairngorm Castle #\ r Ballater na Dee Mountains e V# a Banchory NORTHEAST SCOTLAND SCOTLAND NORTHEAST e T D of 57°N #\ k er Braemar c t gh Inverey i a f Feu #\ u W ater o e R M W y D ##]3 Stonehaven LochnagarR of Morrone Wat er /·A90 /·A93 N o S r ou t B th h ervi #\ Es E Laurencekirk W e k W s \# ate B Clova k r A la a #\ r c te Edzell d k sla r l W I o e #1 f S a Glen Clova aughs t e r ANGUS Brechin #\ #\ Montrose Esk Pictish Stones South #\ #\ #2 Aberlemno North Lunan Sea Kirriemuir #\ Forfar Luna Bay V# n Water #\ Blairgowrie Glamis Castle #\ a T l Arbroath a Is y e 012km # 010miles Broughty 2° W Dundee #^ #\ Ferry Northeast Scotland Highlights 1 Hiking through the hills 4 Exploring the hills, forests, around beautiful Glen Clova castles and pretty villages of (p 235 ) Royal Deeside (p 247 ) 2 Meditating on the meaning 5 Being initiated into the of the mysterious Pictish mysteries of malt whisky on stones (p 231 ) of Angus a Speyside distillery tour 3 Tucking into the freshest (p 255 ) of Scottish seafood at the Tolbooth Restaurant (p 246 ) in Stonehaven 8 Getting Around Dundee enjoys perhaps the fi nest loca- You can pick up a public transport map from tion of any Scottish city, spreading along the 225 tourist offi ces and bus stations. For timetable northern shore of the Firth of Tay, and can information, call Traveline (%0871 200 2233; boast tourist attractions of national impor- www.travelinescotland.com). tance in Discovery Point and the Verdant BUS The Dundee to Aberdeen route is served by Works museum. Add in the attractive sea- Scottish Citylink (www.citylink.co.uk) buses. side suburb of Broughty Ferry, some lively Stagecoach (www.stagecoachbus.com) is the nightlife and the Dundonians themselves – main regional bus operator, with services linking among the friendliest, most welcoming and all the main towns and cities. most entertaining people you’ll meet – and Stagecoach off ers a Highland Megarider Dundee is defi nitely worth a stopover. ticket (£24) that gives seven days unlimited bus travel in Inverness and as far as Strathpef- History fer, Beauly, Nairn, Elgin and Fochabers, and a During the 19th century Dundee grew from Bluebird Megarider ticket (£70) that allows its trading port origins to become a major seven days unlimited travel on all its services in player in the shipbuilding, whaling, textile Aberdeenshire and Moray. and railway engineering industries. Dun- TRAIN The Dundee–Inverness railway line donian fi rms owned and operated most of passes through Arbroath, Montrose, Stone- the jute mills in India (jute is a natural fi - haven, Aberdeen, Huntly and Elgin. bre used in making ropes and sacking), and the city’s textile industry employed as many as 43,000 people – little wonder Dundee DUNDEE & ANGUS earned the nickname ‘Juteopolis’. Dundee is often called the city of the Angus is a region of fertile farmland stretching north from Dundee – Scotland’s ‘Three Js’ – jute, jam and journalism. Ac- ANGUS SCOTLAND NORTHEAST & DUNDEE fourth-largest city – to the Highland border. cording to legend, it was a Dundee woman, It’s an attractive area of broad straths (val- Janet Keillor, who invented marmalade in leys) and low, green hills contrasting with the late 18th century; her son founded the the rich, red-brown soil of freshly ploughed city’s famous Keillor jam factory. Jute is fi elds. Romantic glens fi nger their way into no longer produced, and when the Keillor the foothills of the Grampian Mountains, factory was taken over in 1988 production while the scenic coastline ranges from the was transferred to England. Journalism red-sandstone cliff s of Arbroath to the long, still thrives, however, led by the family fi rm sandy beaches around Montrose. This was of DC Thomson. Best known for children’s the Pictish heartland of the 7th and 8th cen- comics, such as the Beano, Thomson is now DUNDEE turies, and many interesting Pictish symbol the city’s largest employer. stones survive here. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Apart from the crowds visiting Discov- Dundee was one of the richest cities in the ery Point in newly confi dent Dundee and country – there were more millionaires per the coach parties shuffl ing through Glamis head of population here than anywhere else Castle, Angus is a bit of a tourism back in Britain – but the textile and engineering water and a good place to escape the hordes. industries declined in the second half of the 20th century, leading to high unemploy- ment and urban decay. In the 1960s and ’70s Dundee’s cityscape Dundee was scarred by ugly blocks of fl ats, offi ce POP 144,000 buildings and shopping centres linked by London’s Trafalgar Sq has Nelson on his unsightly concrete walkways – the view as column, Edinburgh’s Princes St has its you approach across the Tay Road Bridge monument to Sir Walter Scott and Belfast does not look promising – and most visitors has a statue of Queen Victoria outside City passed it by. Since the mid-1990s, however, Hall. Dundee’s City Sq, on the other hand, is Dundee has reinvented itself as a tourist des- graced – rather endearingly – by the bronze tination, and a centre for banking, insurance fi gure of Desperate Dan. Familiar to gener- and new industries, while its waterfront is ations of British school children, Dan is one currently undergoing a major redevelop- of the best-loved cartoon characters from ment. It also has more university students – the children’s comic the Dandy, published one in seven of the population – than any by Dundee fi rm DC Thomson since 1937. other town in Europe, except Heidelberg. e 0200m Dundee # 00.1miles 226 A B C D W C E ‚ l l o u â# e To Bus t e n C McManus e #ú t c S 9 t r a s S s e l B Station (170m) t ll t i Galleries g e i d B t s e y T M t u sid r es ow a C a t d r d a N W ò# ea an i r o 1111M agate e r o d s n u leLn 1 k r 11111 L 1 Br t R Se G a e h M e d ll t 1111 a ‚ own L t g in Rd ly t rd 11111 S i a a B a d W The R t i s a 1111 t g t a e S t St y r Howff f h C e S 11111r o ig omm k To t a r 4 H r c1111 m er a Broughty k ÿ# Castle St cial S 11111 S S M S L t t 00000 e t Ferry ou i South Ward Rd 1111 g n h To Verdant th #ý 00000 n W d t (4.5mi) ar s t 00000 a t d a S #á h u Works R y City Square00000 c S d 15 nk 00000 x o (250m) 0¸A991 S a E ‚ t B C00000 S 00000r e 00000ic c 00000ht #ý T 1 o 13 ‚ Ha Whi n re t wkh #ú 6 o S 2 ill W Ü# te S h 2 #û e !0 h t k stP S s al S c We ort t M lS es o HM Frigate o U Cr D 10 u a t ll Unicorn (250m) t rke n ÿ# a h io 3 h t n e666 T g t S i a ait teÿ# t y a h S t 2 W #ú etherg 5 N 8 #ú Tay #û #ý Sq 14 #û 11 Discovery WEST END #æ#ú et 12 7 rk 3 66a 666Point 3 Dundee m n e Dundee #æ Contemporary Arts e 0¸A85 #ï Firth r Train of Tay Perth Rd G ‚ Station To Airport (2mi); NORTHEAST SCOTLAND SCOTLAND NORTHEAST To Dilse (500m); Agacan (800m) £# ‚ Perth (21mi) A B C D 1 Sights A joint ticket that gives entry to both Dis- Discovery Point MUSEUM covery Point and the Verdant Works costs (www.rrsdiscovery.com; Discovery Quay; adult/ £11.50/7 per adult/child.