Peterhead


Peterhead is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is the largest settlement in the council area, with a population of 19,060 at the 2022 Census. It is the busiest fishing port in the United Kingdom for total landings by UK vessels, according to a 2019 survey.
Peterhead sits at the easternmost point in mainland Scotland. It is often referred to as The Blue Toun and locals are known as Bloo Touners. They are also referred to as blue mogganers, supposedly from the blue worsted moggans or stockings that the fishermen originally wore.

Prehistory and archaeology

Expansion of the town's landfill led to archaeological work in 2002 and 2003. The investigations found a clearance cairn with late Bronze Age stone tools, a burial cairn with late Neolithic and early Bronze Age stone tools and Beaker ceramics. They also found some stone tools dating to the Mesolithic and early Neolithic which indicated that people have been living in the Peterhead area for over five thousand years.

History

Founding

Prior to the Reformation, the land on which the town stands, together with a sizeable amount of adjoining country, belonged to Deer Abbey. In 1560, when it was known as Peterugie, or Inverugie of St Peter, it was granted by Mary, Queen of Scots, to Robert Keith, 1st Lord Altrie, a son of William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal. Peterhead was founded in 1593 by George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal, the 4th Earl's nephew and successor, and was developed as a planned settlement, then known as "Harbour and Barony of Keith Insche commonly called Peterhead". The town's first known population totalled 56. The twelve original feuars occupied land along Seagate between the pier of Port Henry, to the north, and the Quinzie to the south. The Queenie was a causeway of boulders, covered only by spring tides, which linked the islands of Keith Inch and Greenhill to the mainland.
Today, the Queenie Bridge, which opened in 1954, connects Bridge Street and Greenhill Road. The construction of Port Henry in 1593 encouraged the growth of Peterhead as a fishing port and established a base for trade. Port Henry, the oldest of Peterhead's three harbours, was constructed along the Seagate shore by Henry Middleton, under the supervision of Keith. It was protected to the north by the Old Pier, which was probably erected before 1593.
Peterhead developed uphill between the shore and Longate, which—until the development of Broad Street in the late 18th century—was the main historic district of the town.
Port Henry was improved in 1631 and repaired before the end of the century and again early in the 18th century. The south pier was increased in height and the west pier was constructed. The southern part was reconstructed between 1775 and 1781 by John Smeaton, with improvements carried out by John Rennie between 1806 and 1810. He also oversaw an addition to the west pier in 1813.
By 1680, Charles McKean notes that Peterhead "had become one of the best fishings on the north coast". Around the same time, the town had gained a reputation as a watering place with both bath houses and mineral wells, but both are now gone.

18th century

On 22 December 1715, James Francis Edward Stuart, Prince of Wales, arrived in Peterhead from Dunkirk and stayed "in an ancient house in Longate", where he was visited by the Earl Marischal. The Marischal's last Baron Baillie, Thomas Arbuthnot, put the town on alert for war by summoning able-bodied men and their weapons. The prince left for Newburgh, and the town, by forfeiture of the Keiths, suffered for its loyalty. The estate of the Earl Marischal was forfeited in 1716, sold to York Buildings Company, then to the governors of Merchant Maiden Hospital, Edinburgh, in 1726.
In 1728, the diocese of Aberdeen reported that Peterhead was "about 230 families; the people are sober and courteous, and agree well amongst themselves, which has now become a rare character. Market day is Friday, but neglected. The town is much resorted to in July and August, because the famous well here is then in its strength".
Peterhead Harbour was proving so valuable that in 1738, the Leith shipmasters attested that "the harbour of Peterhead is in our opinion the best situate of any place in Scotland for all ships trading on the north seas".
In 1775, the "feu superior", the Merchant Maiden Company of Edinburgh, transferred to the Committee of Feuars of Peterhead the Tolbooth, Tolbooth Green and other sundry land. The new Peterhead Town House building replaced the tolbooth in 1788. Meanwhile, the enclosed lands of South Bay were being developed into "the beautifully homogeneous district of elegant houses for the accommodation of strangers and sea captains, much of which still survives". Fishermen began to move to Roanheads on the north-east shoulder of the peninsula. Roanheads was laid out in today's form by 1771, and some of the few surviving pantiled houses may be original.
From 1788, the port developed a speciality in whaling. It eventually became Britain's largest whaling port.

19th century

In 1815, before the increase in herring popularity, there were 72 vessels registered to Peterhead operating from the port; by 1850 there were over 400.
North Harbour and the dry dock were built by Rennie and Thomas Telford between 1818 and 1822. They were improved fifteen years later. The junction canal was built in 1849, while the south and west piers of North Harbour were built by David Stevenson in 1855. The southern part of North Harbour dates from 1872. It was constructed by David and his brother, Thomas, with improvements made between 1893 and 1897 by William Shield, a local worker.
A lifeboat station was first established in 1865.
Image:Young beachcombers, Peterhead by James Shivas .jpg|thumb|right|Peterhead in the 1860s
Peterhead convict prison was opened in 1888, gaining a reputation as one of Scotland's toughest prisons. The same year, Peterhead was made a head port, its limits extending southward to the mouth of the River Ythan and westward to Powk Burn.

20th and 21st centuries

South Harbour was deepened between 1906 and 1908. The Harbour of Refuge was begun in 1886 by Sir John Coode. It was built by convict labour.
The present harbour, now a Category B listed structure, has two massive breakwaters, enclosing an area of approximately in Peterhead Bay. The south breakwater, about long, was constructed between 1892 and 1912 using convict labour from the prison. Peterhead was, and remains, an important fishing port, and the breakwater gave it an advantage over other fishing ports. The north breakwater, constructed between 1912 and 1956, is approximately long.
Peterhead was a Jacobite-supporting town in the Jacobite risings of 1715 and 1745. In particular, it was one of the Episcopalian north-eastern ports where reinforcements, plus money and equipment, were periodically landed from France during the Forty-Five.
During World War II, Peterhead was bombed 28 times by Nazi Germany bombers, ranking it as the second-most-bombed location in Britain, after London. Aberdeen, which is close to the town and a more logical target of the bombers, was bombed 24 times.
A new phase of growth was initiated in the 1970s with Peterhead becoming a major oil-industry service centre, and the completion of the nearby St Fergus gas terminal. At this time, considerable land holdings were allocated for industrial development.
From the 1990s onward, the town has suffered from several high-profile company closures and is facing a number of pressures, including Common Fisheries Policy reforms. However, it retains a relatively diverse economy, including food processing, textiles, service industries and, still importantly, fishing. The Peterhead Port Authority plans to extend the northern breakwater as a stimulus to the town's economic development. In addition, to assist with business diversification and town centre environmental improvements, the 'Peterhead Project' initiative, under the Aberdeenshire Towns Partnership, brings together the Council, Scottish Enterprise Grampian, Communities Scotland, commerce and community representatives.
The town's port remains the largest for landings in the United Kingdom. According to a 2019 UK sea fisheries statistical survey, Peterhead Port's catch size for the year was 132,000 tonnes. Nearby Fraserburgh was third, behind Lerwick. It was placed 14th in the list of number of fishers based at each port.

Listed buildings

Peterhead has many listed buildings across the three categories. The three Category A listed buildings are Buchan Ness lighthouse, Old St Peter's Church and the Old Parish Church. The majority of the listed buildings are on streets that fan out from the harbour, including Harbour Street, Broad Street, Jamaica Street, Maiden Street, Merchant Street, Port Henry Road, Queen Street and St Andrew Street.
Queen Street was the main street of the new town laid out around 1805. North Street, which leads up into Roanheads, consists of 19th-century two-storey red granite homes. The dormer-windowed circa-1877 fisher houses in Great Stuart Street were constructed for fishermen quitting Burnhaven. There are similar houses in Port Henry Road, Gladstone Road and Almanythie Road.
The oldest building in Peterhead is the 16th-century Fish-House, located on today's Golf Road.
;Harbour Street
Harbour Street was laid out in 1739. Redevelopment of the eastern end of Harbour Street, at its junction with Union Street, Farmer's Lane and Bridge Street, began in 2016. It is the home of the Peterhead office of Marine Scotland.
;Broad Street
The former heart of the 19th-century town, Broad Street was bordered by the Peterhead Town House to the west, Arbuthnot House to the east, and lined on both sides "by good houses, hotels and banks". The slope between Broad Street and the harbour "contains some of the most picturesque urban streets in Scotland," according to historian Charles McKean.
There are 22 listed buildings on Broad Street, including:
  • Arbuthnot House, built in 1805. Category B listed
  • 32 Broad Street, built in 1858. Category B listed
  • 59 Broad Street, built in the mid-18th century. Category B listed
  • 75 Broad Street, built in 1835. Category B listed
  • Reform Monument, built in 1833. Category B listed
  • Peterhead Town House, built in 1788. Category B listed
;Merchant Street
  • 10 Merchant Street, built. Category B listed
  • St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 22 Merchant Street, built in 1814. Category B listed
  • *The church hall of the above. Category C listed
  • Statue of Field Marshal Keith, built in 1868. Category B listed