Why do you like Aberdeen?

BruceWee

I lived there for a year or so back in 2006/2007.

I would never go back there. The biggest difference I’ve found between Glasgow and Aberdeen is that in Glasgow trouble is fairly easy to avoid. In Aberdeen it comes looking for you.

Well thats not my experience. I’ve lived in Aberdeen for 40 years and done my fair share of socializing in town and neither I nor any of my friends have ever ended up in a fight – even as yoofs.

As is the case with many places right now the city center is in a bit of a sorry state – perhaps exaggerated in Aberdeen because the main high street is a mile long straight line – but there is a plan to improve things and some green shoots of recovery on the way. It was a massive bummer to lose John Lewis and that has not helped the city center at all as it was such a destination shop.

There is no getting away from the fact that Aberdeen has been particularly hard hit by both Brexit and the O&G downturn but there is significant investment being pumped into the city and with its current workforce and infrastructure it is well placed to play a leading role in renewables, advanced manufacturing, new technologies and energy transitions. Lots of local organizations (business, education and 3rd sector) are pulling together to make sure Aberdeen has a bright and successful future..

There are some great neighborhoods and commuter towns with cycling from the doorstep and as others have said, if you enjoy the outdoors you are spoiled rotten. Mountain biking, road cycling, hillwalking, climbing, watersports, golf, horseriding etc are all available in abundance.

There are also some really great local bike shops (though most of the decent indys are in the shire).

I went once. The last plane of the day broke down so meek ‘IT’ me and a load of scary coming-back-onshore workers due to head back to Leedsbratfut got shifted to a hotel at BA’s expense. There weren’t many of us on the rescheduled flight the next morning.

Where did you live, Sandilands?

Started off in the centre and then moved to Hilton.

Maybe I was unlucky but many of my co-workers also had similar experiences.

Maybe I just never figured out which areas to avoid but in Glasgow it’s always been really obvious which areas are dodgy. In Aberdeen it just seemed like there was trouble everywhere.

Sorry Bruce, I should’ve put a smiley face at the end of that statement.

I’m not saying I’ve not experienced trouble in Aberdeen but you make it sound relentless.

I’m not saying I’ve not experienced trouble in Aberdeen but you make it sound relentless.

Maybe not relentless but I just found there was always an undercurrent of agro that sometimes ended up in violence.

Like I said, maybe I was just particularly unlucky.

Like I said, maybe I was just particularly unlucky.

This.

*after saying that I’m now scared to head out after dark.

I lived in Aberdeenshire for a couple of years whilst working in Aberdeen.

my favourite aspect of Aberdeen was this:

In the rear view mirror.

I lived next to Hilton for a while and would cycle through it on my way to work.

Brucewee probably isn’t far off tbh.

My lasting memory was riding home about 8.30pm and the local Ned’s had stolen a motox bike and were wheelying it down the main road goading the coppers in their car……

Followed shortly after by me getting a bus home from town that went through Hilton to get to mine….. Lad gets on at Hilton and starts racially abusing the driver and beating shit out of his screen etc……

My bike got stolen and my car got broken into at that house as well…..

I only lived in that house for 8 months. I had been trying to move out since about week 2 .

Every town/city has it’s bad areas. Where I used to park my car for uni in Dundee – lad got murdered on the street- and that wasn’t even lochee or kirkton.

Plenty nice areas in Aberdeen too though. Why it’s important to get to know an area before committing to move.

Just to offer an alternative view I reckon Aberdeen is quite a safe city to live in. I have never experienced any violence while out in Aberdeen city centre. Have hear of a few incidents in George street area. West end of Aberdeen seems very safe. Caveat is there are always some nutters in every large town/city.

For a city to bring up kids I think Aberdeen is hard to beat. Probably Inverness would be better but Aberdeen has two good universities.

I must admit though Glasgow and Edinburgh have much better restaurants and better access to big gigs but I wouldn’t live in either if I had the choice.

Futureboy77
Free Member
Pittodrie is a belting away trip. 😆

Agreed. Although it comes second only to Arbroath in terms of Scotland’s coldest away day 🙂

never been to Gayfeild, though could have the chance, the mighty Arbroath are riding high in the Championship at the minute. 😆

Could Dick Campbell become Scotlands greatest ever manager? 😆

10 yrs working there.
Very few things I miss about the place. It’s grim and grey.

Great if you like strip clubs and bars full of oil worker arseholes but very little else.

The surrounding areas are lovely but let’s be honest , it’s fekin cold and miserable most of the year.

But I’d be slightly concerned about the effects of the oil n gas stuff dwindling down

Don’t underestimate this. 20 years ago I worked in sales, in a field totally unrelated to oil and gas. My colleague based in Aberdeen didn’t leave the house if the oil price was low, everything ground to a halt when oil and gas wasn’t performing.

It’s a place where usually 14yr olds had credit cards and 17yr olds had Wrx,s

Now, the bubble has been well and truly pricked.

Wouldn’t listen to the folk that have never lived in Aberdeen. It’s a very different experience visiting for work for a few days a week or transiting offshore. These guys go to the same few bars/sleazy joints every time they visit then say there’s nothing in Aberdeen.

On the other side I quite like the refurbished art gallery, music venues (Lemon Tree, Music Hall, Drummond,Tunnels). There are also good folky nights at the Blue Lamp and there used to be a great choice of open mic and comedy nights. They seem to be slowly coming back now after the COVID restrictions. There are also lots of decent cafes.

Born and brought up in Aberdeen, moved to Glasgow a good few years ago for work. Would happily move back if circumstances allowed.

Judging Aberdeen from the perspective of living in Hilton would be like me judging Glasgow by the time I spent as a student in Sighthill!

People in Aberdeen are far more reserved than they are in Glasgow – folk down here are far more superficially friendly, but far more likely to stab you by the end of the chat😂 By comparison, I suspect Aberdonians seem pretty introverted to a lot of newcomers, maybe even unfriendly in comparison to other places.

I laugh when Weegies complain about Aberdeen being ‘grey’, given most of central Glasgow is black with dirt! It’s definitely a colder climate up in Aberdeen, but considerably drier than the west coast – you don’t get the endless succession of Atlantic depressions in the Autumn.
Best bit of Aberdeen is definitely heading out west along Deeside – if you’re into pretty much any outdoor activity, there’s scope to do it in some of the most jaw droppingly beautiful parts of Scotland.