Scotland Guide
Northeast Scotland
Castlegate
Any exploration of the city centre should begin at the open, cobbled Castlegate, where Aberdeen's long-gone castle once stood. At its centre is the late seventeenth-century Mercat Cross, carved with a unique gallery of Stewart sovereigns alongside some fierce gargoyles. Castlegate was once the focus of city life but nowadays seems rather lifeless, though the view up gently rising Union Street – a jumble of grey spires, turrets and jostling double-decker buses – is quintessential Aberdeen.