Overview of Peterhead

A fishing port and resort town on the North Sea coast of Aberdeenshire, situated on a peninsula at the most easterly point of Scotland, 32 miles (51 km) north of Aberdeen. Largely built of red granite from nearby Stirling Hill, the town was founded by George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal following the granting of a charter creating a burgh of barony in 1593.

Until then, the only settlement in existence had been the fishing village of Keith-Inch (Caikinche), situated on an island separated from the mainland by a narrow channel that was filled in with stones in 1739 to create a causeway known as the Queenzie. The port's south harbour was built in 1773 by the engineer John Smeaton and the north harbour begun in 1818 after designs by Thomas Telford. In 1850 a canal was created across the peninsula linking the two harbours so that boats could be moved when one or other harbour was windbound.

Towards the end of the 18th Century Peterhead became a fashionable spa, its Wine Well and other springs attracting people to the town, but today it is Europe's leading white fishing port with capacity for a fleet of some 300 vessels. It is also a service base for the North Sea oil industry and has a heliport to the west at Longside. The Arbuthnot Museum tells the story of the town's fishing and whaling industries and there are 9 and 18-hole golf courses in addition to a sailing club.

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