Character and Land Use
The central part of the old town is a conservation area rich in historical buildings, some dating to the Middle Ages, and many vernacular buildings of the 17th-early 19th centuries built in the locally ubiquitous grey granite. A notable feature of the later buildings is the early use of hand-made bricks to build up gables, top garden walls, etc.; this use of brick being rare elsewhere in Scotland before the late 19th century. A number of the streets remain paved with stone setts. There are also several university buildings from the late 20th century.
Old Aberdeen is effectively the main campus of the University of Aberdeen. There are also residential and commercial properties, but many of these are owned by the university or owned by the staff and students of the university. Additionally the area includes a small police station, a bank, a pub, a bakery, and until recently its own Post Office (which has since "moved" into the SPAR shop outside of the Old Aberdeen boundary at the junction of St Machar Drive and King Street). To the north of the university lies St Machar's Cathedral, whose medieval ecclesiastical buildings formed the original Old Aberdeen before the University arrived in 1495.
Major historic buildings in Old Aberdeen include: the late 15th Century King's College Chapel, one of two surviving Scottish medieval churches with open "crown" spires, and which has the largest surviving collection of medieval woodcarving in any Scottish building; St Machar's Cathedral itself; the recently-restored Old Town House (early 18th century); and the Brig o' Balgownie (14th Century), now pedestrianised, and which is a contender for the title of Scotland's oldest surviving bridge.
Read more about this topic: Old Aberdeen
Famous quotes containing the words character and, character and/or land:
“I wasn’t born to be a fighter. I was born with a gentle nature, a flexible character and an organism as equilibrated as it is judged hysterical. I shouldn’t have been forced to fight constantly and ferociously. The causes I have fought for have invariably been causes that should have been gained by a delicate suggestion. Since they never were, I made myself into a fighter.”
—Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)
“People without firmness of character love to make up a “fate” for themselves; that relieves them of the necessity of having their own will and of taking responsibility for themselves.”
—Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)
“The mode of clearing and planting is to fell the trees, and burn once what will burn, then cut them up into suitable lengths, roll into heaps, and burn again; then, with a hoe, plant potatoes where you can come at the ground between the stumps and charred logs; for a first crop the ashes suffice for manure, and no hoeing being necessary the first year. In the fall, cut, roll, and burn again, and so on, till the land is cleared; and soon it is ready for grain, and to be laid down.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)