Relocation Service
Stronachs offer a comprehensive relocation service, particularly suited to company personnel arriving to the area for the first time. Our property team are able to offer extensive local knowledge to help identify the locality most suited to particular needs and priorities, then work on the client’s behalf to make the transition to Scotland as smooth as possible.
Some useful advice for clients relocating to Aberdeen and North East Scotland
The following information is intended to serve as only the briefest of introductions to the main characteristics of life in Aberdeen and North East Scotland. It is, furthermore, essentially a subjective view based on our own experience of living and working in and around Aberdeen.
Stronachs trusts that the following information enables you to gain a quick appreciation of a city region which is recognised for its extremely high quality of life. Life in Aberdeen and North East Scotland is recognised to be stress-lowering, environmentally-friendly, family-based and generally enriching.
Click here for information on the following topics:
History and geography
Travel connections
Housing
Education
Recreation
Arts and entertainment
Leisure
For clients who want to explore the region’s attractions and facilities at first hand prior to relocation, contact partner Carol Crowther at carol.crowther@stronachs.com
History and geography
With a population of over 200,000, Aberdeen is Scotland’s third-largest city. With its strong links with the prime farmlands of Aberdeenshire which encircle the city, Aberdeen escaped the heavy industrialisation which dominated other British cities in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Aberdeen is a historic city, with an ancient cathedral, links to Robert the Bruce and the third-oldest university in Scotland (which has students of 120 different nationalities). Once most famous for its granite production (“the Silver City”), Aberdeen is now better known as the Oil Capital of Europe.
Forty years of hosting international oil and gas exploration and production activities have made Aberdeen a thoroughly cosmopolitan city, with significant communities of French, Dutch, Italian, Scandinavian and many other nationalities.
Many visitors to Aberdeen are pleasantly surprised at the city’s compactness. Although peak-hour traffic can still be problematic (although less so than in many other cities – many people still commute in 20-40 minutes), it is generally possible to cross the city, explore a beach or access the splendid countryside in under half-an-hour.
Aberdeen enjoys the highest daily average of sunshine in Scotland, although its proximity to the North Sea often keeps temperatures a few degrees lower than the rest of the UK. On occasions, a notorious sea mist (“haar”) can roll in to temporarily blot out spring and summer sunshine, but the west of the city and inland areas often escape this blight on an otherwise enjoyable and healthy climate. Recent winters have been distinctly mild, and, in contrast to Scotland’s west coast, Aberdeen is used to enjoying long rain-free periods for much of the year.
Travel connections
Aberdeen Airport is currently undergoing significant growth, and as a result of runway extension, has added 30 new domestic and international routes since 2004. The airport currently has 26 daily flights to London. The airport is conveniently located only twenty minutes’ drive from the city centre.
The city is approximately 2½ hours’ drive from Edinburgh and Glasgow. A major city road bypass - the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route – is planned, opening in 2011, designed to alleviate city centre traffic and speed up road connections north and west of the city.
The roads of North East Scotland are generally modern and efficient, with remarkably low traffic levels in comparison with much of the rest of the country.
Housing
The Aberdeen travel-to-work area includes many settlements with high quality traditional and modern executive housing. The Aberdeen property market is confident (late 2006), with premium prices being paid for top-of-the-range accommodation in strong local communities.
Traditional West End city properties are particularly desirable, and in many cases offer a spacious family home within easy walking distance of city centre schools, shops and workplaces.
Other popular executive housing areas follow the course of the River Dee to the well-established village suburbs of Cults, Milltimber, Bieldside and Peterculter. Aberdeen marks the termination of two rivers, and while the valley of the Dee has enjoyed long-documented royal favour, Donside is no less popular as a location and has attracted such celebrity residents as comedian Billy Connolly.
Education
Aberdeen has twelve comprehensive secondary schools including one of the UK’s oldest, Aberdeen Grammar School, which includes such famous alumni as Lord Byron in its six centuries of Scottish education. Independent schools in the city include Robert Gordon’s College, Albyn School, St Margaret’s School for Girls and The Hamilton School (whose curriculum follows the Montessori philosophy).
Other specialist schools include one of the few French language schools in the UK, an International School and a Steiner Waldorf school.
Aberdeen has two Universities – the historic University of Aberdeen (founded in 1495), and The Robert Gordon University, which is the top UK university for graduate employment.
Aberdeen College is Scotland’s largest further education institution in Scotland, with its main campus in the city centre.
Recreation
Aberdeen possesses some of the oldest – and the most beautiful – public parks in Britain, and is a regular winner of the much-coveted “Britain in Bloom” competition. The clean, sandy beach is equally spectacular, and attracts hundreds of joggers, dog-walkers and a few intrepid windsurfers.
But it’s the city’s proximity to the countryside which is the key attraction for so many Aberdonians. Aberdeenshire has one of the richest topographies in Europe, with unspoilt coastline, sandy beaches, rich, rolling farmlands, abundant forests, moorland and dozens of challenging hills and mountains.
Aberdeenshire is also one of the most popular golf regions in the world, hosting around fifty courses ranging from punishing links to spectacular cliff-top courses. In 2006, the US-based Trump Organisation announced plans to build two of the best golf courses in the world just north of Aberdeen, opening in 2009 if plans are approved.
Other sports enthusiasts are equally well catered for. The city has two indoor tennis centres, numerous sports centres, forest walks, fishing and easy access to winter sports.
Arts and entertainment
Aberdeen has two city centre jewels in the recently-refurbished His Majesty’s Theatre (of which Stronachs is a long-term patron), recognised as one of the most beautiful theatres in Britain, and the equally splendid Aberdeen Art Gallery, which is one of the most popular visitor attractions in Scotland.
There are many other popular venues for exhibitions and the performing arts, as well as lively nightclubs, jazz clubs, casinos and music pubs.
Aberdeen hosts a number of popular festivals throughout the year, including the world-famous International Youth Festival, a lively jazz festival, a prestigious writers’ festival, an international football festival and several roots and folk music events.
Outside the city, cultural trails beckon, including a remarkable collection of some of Scotland’s most spectacular castles and prehistoric monuments. Slightly farther afield is the Whisky Trail, where visitors can compare and contrast a remarkable concentration of the world’s finest single malt whiskies.
Leisure
Aberdeen’s nightlife and restaurant scenes are both vibrant, with ample evidence of the city’s increasingly cosmopolitan nature. Seafood is appropriately popular, with several award-winning establishments bringing the best North Sea fare to the table.
The city has three major central shopping complexes, housing almost all the major UK high street retailers alongside many successful independent local shops. Both the John Lewis and Marks and Spencer stores are recognised within their respective organisations as high-performing UK flagship stores.
A more recent development which broadens the shopping experience has been the running of regular farmers markets and international street markets in the city centre, which is partly pedestrianised for such events.
City centre parking is more problematic than impossible, in contrast to many other gridlocked cities. As well as the major city centre car parks, there are also many convenient short-term parking facilities scattered throughout the city to cater for the busy shopper.
Key Contact: Carol Crowther
Tel: 01224 626100
Email: carol.crowther@stronachs.com
