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Aberdeen is the largest burgh in the north of Scotland.
The city is situated at the head of the estuary of the Dee, a river which
rises in the central Grampians and flows eastwards to the North Sea. The Don
valley, leading into the mountains, lies just north of the town. Aberdeen is,
therefore, a market and retail centre for the farming country inland, which is
noted for a breed of beef cattle, the famous Aberdeen-Angus. Much of the town
is built of the local silver-grey granite, a stone much prized in other parts
of Britain for special buildings. Aberdeen is the most important fishing port
in Scotland, with wet docks to accommodate all kinds of boats engaged in
fishing. Fresh fish is sent by express freight trains to towns in the central
Lowlands, while great quantities of herring and cod are smoked and salted. The
burgh is the cultural and educational headquarters of the north of Scotland,
with its university founded in 1494. In 1972 a very large oilfield was
discovered off the coast here, which has boosted Aberdeen's economy.
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