Old Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Old Aberdeen. You may be able to find further references to Old Aberdeen in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Old Aberdeen Bartholomew

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Old Aberdeen within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
Daniel Defoe Letter 13, Part 2: Dundee, Aberdeen and the Highlands 4
Samuel Johnson Aberdeen 2
Thomas Pennant August 7-13: Aberdeen and the North East 2
William Camden Scotland: North of the Antonine Wall 1
John Wesley 1760-2: Letter to an Editor; Impositions and Declarations; Speaking Statue; Pentecost 1
John Wesley 1765-8: Justice for Methodists; Methodist Character; Instructions to Parents 1
John Wesley 1769-70: Opens a New Church; Comments on Rousseau; Geology; Swedenborg 1
John Wesley 1774-6: Wesley Arrested; A Terrible Ride; A Methodist Isaac Newton; the American War 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Bridge of Don 2 3
Old Machar 0 2
Woodside 0 2
Grandholm 0 2
Balgownie 0 1
Aberdeen 108 4
Torry 0 2
Ferryhill 0 1
Bridge of Dee 4 1
Banchory Devenick 0 2
Dyce 0 2
Cults 0 2
Newhills 0 2
Cove 0 2
Belhelvie 0 2
Nigg 0 2
Findon 0 3
Blackburn 0 2
Portlethen 0 2
New Machar 0 2

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Old Aberdeen. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
OLD ABERDEEN John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
OLD ABERDON William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
OLD <EM>ABERDEEN Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
OLD <EM>ABERDEEN</EM> Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.