Thousands visit Aberdeen’s parks and beaches on hottest day of the year

19 July 2016

Thousands of families, sun-worshippers and picnic-goers descended on Aberdeen’s parks and beach today (Tues 19 July) on the hottest day of the year.

All the city’s parks and green spaces have drawn in the crowds with many people taking advantage of the 25C temperatures to have picnics or simply lounge about in the sunshine.

Aberdeen City Council Leader Councillor Jenny Laing said: “It’s great to see so many people out and about enjoying the sunshine in our beautiful parks and at the beach.

“Our staff and the community groups work hard throughout the year to ensure these public spaces are fantastic to go to with fun family-friendly facilities so it’s a testament to them the parks and beach are so popular today.

“We hope there’ll be many more days like this in the weeks ahead.”

An estimated 3,000 people went through the gates at 135-year-old Duthie Park with the play equipment, the quadrycycles, and David Welch Winter Gardens proving especially popular.

A Friends of Duthie Park spokesman said: "I was down at the park at lunchtime and it was fantastic to see families out in such huge numbers enjoying the fabulous weather after what has been a patchy summer at best."

In Hazlehead Park which is a Red Squirrel Conservation Area, Pets’ Corner was very busy and there were long queues for ice cream at the Park Cafe, with an estimated 2,000 people taking advantage of the 440 acres of grass and gardens to have some fun in the sun.

Friends of Hazlehead Park chairman Donald Shaw said: “It’s fantastic to have people of all ages out and about having fun in the sun and enjoying all the great facilities at Hazlehead Park.“

The formal gardens at Seaton Park also proved popular today with sun-bakers and people enjoying the beautiful formal gardens, which are a jewel in the city’s gardening crown.

Friends of Union Terrace Gardens chairwoman Sheila Grant said: “There were lots of people in the park including youngsters on their summer holidays playing football - it's great to see and hear such enjoyment when a precious fine day arrives.”

Union Terrace Gardens was full of office workers at lunchtime basking in the sunshine for their break.

Hundreds of people enjoyed a fun day at the city’s mile-long sandy beach making sandcastles, enjoying ice creams and paddling in the North Sea.