A resort town in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Aboyne lies on the north side of the River Dee on the A93 trunk road, 32 miles (51 km) west of Aberdeen. Laid out after 1670 when it received a burgh charter, its grey granite buildings surround a large central green. It was originally called Charleston of Aboyne in honour of Charles Gordon, 1st Earl of Aboyne (c.1638-81), who obtained the charter and who in 1671 rebuilt part of Aboyne Castle, an important stronghold to the north of the town protecting the roads that converge there. With the arrival of the railway in 1853 (closed in 1966) Aboyne developed as a resort town largely at the hands of Sir William Cunliffe Brooks (1819 - 1900), of Glen Tanar House, whose daughter married another Charles Gordon, the 11th Marquis of Huntly (1847 - 1937).
Today the town benefits from a post-office, a primary school, secondary school (Aboyne Academy) and a collection of shops. It also has a wide range of tourist facilities that include an 18-hole golf course, bowling green, all-weather tennis courts, fishing and shooting, water skiing on Aboyne Loch and gliding at the Deeside Gliding Club at Aboyne Airfield, 3 miles (5 km) to the west. The Community Centre has library and sporting facilities, while places of interest nearby include the Muir of Dinnet National Nature Reserve, the former royal hunting grounds of the Forest of Birse, Potarch Park and the Glen Tanar Visitor Centre in the Forest of Glentanar. Robert Burns' song O'er the Water to Charlie refers to John Ross, the Jacobite boatman who ferried travellers across the Dee at Aboyne before the building of a bridge in 1828. Each year since 1867 the town has hosted the Aboyne Highland Games in September.
Aboyne recorded Scotland's highest-ever February temperature when the village reached 18.3°C on the 21st February 2019.
