Old County of Aberdeenshire

A former county of NE Scotland extending to 1755 sq. miles (4545 sq. km), Aberdeenshire is bounded on the N and E by the North Sea, to the W by the counties of Banff and Inverness-shire and to the S by Kincardineshire, Angus and Perthshire. It was rather less extensive, if more populous, than the contemporary Council Area of the same name, which gained Banff and Kincardineshire, while losing the city of Aberdeen itself. Its ancient divisions included Buchan, Formartine, Garioch, Mar (Braemar, Cromar and Midmar) and Strathbogie. In addition to Aberdeen, its main settlements were the seaports of Peterhead and Fraserburgh, together with Alford, Ballater, Braemar, Ellon, Huntly, Inverurie, Kintore, New Machar and Turriff, while its principal rivers were the Dee, Don, Deveron and Ythan. In 1974 the county was incorporated into Grampian Region as Aberdeenshire District, before being re-established as a separate entity - with different borders - in 1996.

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