Three new free walking trail guides for Aberdeen were today launched including Union Terrace Gardens, cinemas old and new, and the Bridge of Don area.
The family-friendly guides and maps, produced by Aberdeen City Council with help from community groups and student placements for some of them, are designed to encourage people discover places full of history, heritage, and beautiful green spaces.
The new or revised trail booklets, which are available as printable downloads from the council’s website, include:
- NEW Union Terrace Gardens;
- NEW Cinemas;
- NEW Bridge of Don;
- EXPANDED Duthie Park;
- EXPANDED Sculpture & Curios
- UPDATED Denburn;
- UPDATED The Best of Aberdeen;
The new Union Terrace Gardens guide means the four biggest parks in Aberdeen – Duthie, Hazlehead, Seaton, and Union Terrace Gardens – all now have trail guides.
The new trail guides, many routes of which can be cycled, mean there is now a total of 27 in the series covering many historical and natural gems around the city.
Items in the new trail guides include artworks and planting schemes for Union Terrace Gardens, a timeline of the dozens of cinemas as the city once had the highest number of cinema seats per head of population in the UK, and where there’s a former manganese quarry.
The Lord Provost of Aberdeen Dr David Cameron said: “We want to encourage people to walk or cycle more and we hope these trail guides help people to get out there and find out what’s in the city at the same time.
“We have many green areas and stunning buildings so it’s fantastic these new trail guides have been produced showing even more of our fascinating heritage.
“We live in a beautiful city with a rich and interesting history so it’s great the trail guides show people what there is, from our stunning and award-winning parks and gardens to quirky little anomalies found all over the city.”
There free downloadable walking trail guides are available online at the City Council’s website at www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/trails plus printed copies at selected venues are being arranged.
The trail guides are funded by Smarter Choices, Smarter Places (SCSP), which is Paths for All’s programme to increase active and sustainable travel throughout Scotland. The programme is grant-funded by Transport Scotland. The current SCSP match fund is Cycling Walking Safer Routes (CWSR) which is also funded by Transport Scotland. CWSR aims to improve the uptake of walking, cycling, and wheeling in Scotland.