Scot Free Tours Aberdeen

09/08/2026

July was a busy month! Alongside our regular tours, we also participated in the Aberdeen's Festival of the Sea with our new Harbour tour, tracing our city's maritime history.

But don't worry if you missed it - we run this tour as part of our public programme every Friday in August. See our website to book!

24/07/2026

One of our highlights from June was two private tours for the University of Aberdeen's Edge Conference. Our guides showed more than 60 geoscientists around Old Aberdeen, hoping to give them a flavour of this incredible part of Aberdeen in a short space of time

13/07/2026

Rounding off our SFT memories, we asked our guide Rebecca for a favourite story from guiding:

"My favourite tour-guiding memory with Scot Free Tours is definitely when I ended up leading two dozen Norwegian Scouts and their leaders around Old Aberdeen.

That was pretty early in my time as an SFT guide and I was still nervous about getting all the details in my stories right, so when you add a big group to that, I think I was pretty on edge at the start!

But the Scouts' curiosity and enthusiasm were unforgettable--they really seemed intrigued by each story I told, and by the end of the tour, I felt so much more confident in my role at SFT than I ever had before.

It was such a privilege to guide them around, and they even gave me a badge! (I've still got it!)"

07/07/2026

Some great tours from the last couple of months!

With guests from France, Italy, Mexico, the USA and Sweden, we could be hosting our own world cup!

29/06/2026

For our 10th year, we're celebrating by looking back at tours past.

Susan, who has been doing tours for slightly more than a year, felt she'd hadn't been with SFT for long enough to have really significant memories.

But when we pressed her she told this lovely story.

"One tour that has always stuck with me was the one I did last September with Leisa and Jazz the ginger cockapoo. Leisa was a lovely Australian lady who was house/pet sitting for a family in Westhill and she was the only client on my Old Aberdeen tour. She had brought Jazz along with her and he was impeccably well behaved - and Bob and I had lost Jazz, our much loved elderly ginger cat, earlier in the year.

"It was such a nice day that we extended the tour by taking a walk in the Cruickshank Gardens, so it lasted for 3 hours, and we had lots of very interesting conversation on the way (including Leisa telling me about the oldest library in Scotland - I had never heard of it 🤣)."

26/06/2026

Happy 10 years to us!

To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we're sharing one of our favourite local stories - about how kissing a duchess might get you more than you bargained for!

The Gordon Highlanders, Aberdeen's local regiment until 1994, was raised in 1794 by the 4th Duke of Gordon and his wife Jane.

But she was the one who did all the recruiting.

She was the one who travelled all around the north of Scotland to recruit men to fight against France.

And she was the one who would give kisses to any man who agreed to join the army.

In those days when you enlisted you accepted an up-front payment, known as the ‘King’s shilling’. Jane put this payment between her lips and in that way gave it to her recruits.

There is a story that a blacksmith who had already refused to join many other regiments, kissed Jane and then threw the money into the crowd to show that was not motivated by the money.

There are other tales of farmers who accepted the kiss and immediately paying the one pound fine to withdraw enlistment. They said that a kiss from Jane was worth a pound.

In total she recruited 940 men. She was 45 years old at the time.

Image courtesy of the Gordon Highlanders Museum, a fascinating museum in Aberdeen where you can learn all about the regiment.

And if you want to learn more about Jane Gordon and other unusual Aberdonians, just check out the SFT unofficial manual, "Unusual Aberdonians: 36(ish) Lives Less Ordinary in the North East of Scotland". On Amazon here: http://bit.ly/43S2Rl5

21/06/2026

To celebrate our 10 year anniversary, we asked some of our guides for one of their favourite tour memories.

Rick, a stalwart of SFT since 2018, shared this: "I studied chemical engineering at uni and worked in the oil business. Engineers are a core group in the industry. There is a professional group of these engineers called the Society of Petroleum Engineers, SPE. New engineers are recruited and remain in it throughout their careers and includes oil companies, service companies and suppliers.

The European chapter of the SPE held a conference in Aberdeen and hired SFT for a tour. I informed the organiser that I was SPE retired. It was largely young engineers, because of the 10 year oil slump. They were as excited to see me as I was to see them. The tour was a joy. I looked at them and saw myself 30 years ago and they looked at me and saw themselves 30 years in the future. SFT made this possible."

16/06/2026

We're turning 10!

Ten years ago I started these tours because I wanted to celebrate a different side to Aberdeen. The creepy, quirky and downright odd stories that were overlooked by visitors and locals.

I thought I'd give it a go for the summer. After all, how much interest could there really be in Aberdonian history? Did anyone even come to Aberdeen on holiday?

Well, I was certainly wrong about that.

Over the last decade we've welcomed people from all over the world to Aberdeen - from people visiting for a few hours to people who have made it their home.

And it's you - the people who join our tours - who make them. None of the SFT guides do this to make money. They do it because they love Aberdeen and they love sharing stories of Aberdeen with lovely people like you.

So, thank you to everyone who has come on a tour in the last 10 years. You have made SFT what it is.

(Picture: the very first public tour on 26 June 1016 with just one couple who were willing to take a shot on a girl bluetacking a poster to the Mercat Cross).

26/04/2026

When's the last time you visited Union Terrace Gardens? This sunken gardens has been a wee gem in the centre of Aberdeen for almost 150 years.

23/04/2026

Looking for something to do this weekend?

We definitely recommend checking out the exhibition of the Linklater Collection at the Sir Duncan Rice Library in Old Aberdeen.

There are paintings by Scottish Colourists J. D. Fergusson, S. J. Peploe and Leslie Hunter, a landscape by Catterline-based painter Joan Eardley and flower paintings by Anne Redpath. We're very lucky to be able to see all this for free in our city!

And why not tack on our tour of Old Aberdeen while you are over there?

The new exhibition from University Collections is Aberdeen Artworlds, marking 50 years of the Linklater Collection of works by some of the most important Scottish artists of the 20th century.