Duthie Park, situated in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, by the banks of the River Dee, comprises of land given to the council in 1881 by Lady Elizabeth Duthie of Ruthrieston, in memory of her uncle and of her brother. She purchased the land for £30,000 from the estate of Arthurseat. The former

Deeside Railway The Deeside Railway was a passenger and goods railway between Aberdeen and Ballater in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Opening in 1853 to Banchory, an extension reached Aboyne in 1859. A separate company, the Aboyne & Braemar Railway, built an extensi ...

ran along the northern edge of the park. The park is now the starting point for the Deeside Way, a long-distance path which uses the trackbed of the railway.

History

Duthie Park was opened in 1883 after it was gifted to the city by Miss Elizabeth Comrie Duthie in 1880 for the 'wellbeing and recreation of Aberdeen residents'. During the 1970s Duthie Park played host to several television programmes. A round of

It's A Knockout ''It's a Knockout!'' is a British game show first broadcast in 1966. It was adapted from the French show '' Intervilles'', and was part of the international '' Jeux sans frontières'' franchise. History The series was broadcast on BBC1 from 7 ...

, featuring a team from Aberdeen against a team from

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( gd, Obar Bhrothaig ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast some ENE of Dundee and SSW of Aberdeen. Th ...

, was staged in Duthie Park on Sunday 10th May 1970 and transmitted on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

on Wednesday 13th May 1970. An episode of the children's programme Play School, transmitted Monday 3rd May 1976, visited Duthie Park in 1976. In 2013 paddle boats were reintroduced to the park. Kayaks are regularly offered in the boating pond. Duthie Park from the Air, Ferryhill, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK

Duthie Park from the Air, Ferryhill, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK

The park has undergone a £5 million pound refurbishment with funding provided by the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

and

Aberdeen City Council gd, Comhairle Cathair Obar Dheathain , native_name_lang = , other_name = , image_skyline = Town House, Municipal Offices and Court Houses in Aberdeen.jpg , image_caption ...

. The original 1883 plans were consulted in order to restore some of the long-lost features. Work was completed in 2013 and the official reopening was on 30 June 2013. The refurbished park cafe was reopened in 2017 and is operated by the same company as the cafe at

Hazlehead Park Hazlehead Park is a public park in the Hazlehead area of Aberdeen, Scotland. 180 hectares in size, it was opened to the public in 1920, having formerly been the estate of Hazlehead House, home of William Rose, shipbuilder. It is heavily wooded a ...

Winter Gardens

The park is noted for the David Welch winter gardens with tropical and arid houses which contain the second largest collections of

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

s and of giant cacti respectively in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

(second to the

Eden Project The Eden Project ( kw, Edenva) is a visitor attraction in Cornwall, England, UK. The project is located in a reclaimed china clay pit, located from the town of St Blazey and from the larger town of St Austell.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

). Originally opened in 1899, the greenhouses had to be demolished and rebuilt after suffering storm damage in 1969. The gardens contain a range of plants including tree ferns, Spanish moss, anthuria, and banana trees. Within the gardens are railings salvaged from the south side of the major bridge in the middle of the city's Union Street. These feature unusual metal cats, derived from the city coat of arms, and were saved when the side of the bridge was developed for retail units in the mid-20th century. Outside the winter garden is the Japanese garden, opened in 1987 to commemorate the dead of

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui ...

and

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

. The gardens closed to the public due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

and reopened in October 2021.

Art in Duthie Park

An interactive musical art installation, called Hornchestra, was installed in 1975. It consisted of a set of horns mounted on a 39ft. pole activated to play different notes by standing on underground foot pads and was donated by the Electrical Association for Women's Aberdeen branch. The installation was later referred to as the Honking Horns.

Images

Image:Duthie Park - ferns.jpg,

Fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes exce ...

s in the Winter Gardens Image:Duthie Park - cacti.jpg,

Cacti A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Gree ...

in the

Arid A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most ...

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air cond ...

of the Winter Gardens Image:Duthie Park - bananas.jpg,

Banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", disting ...

s in the Winter Gardens Duthie Park cafe.jpg, The park cafe Duthie Park Winter Gardens.jpg, Entrance to the Winter Gardens

References

{{Public parks and gardens in Aberdeen Parks in Aberdeen Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes 1881 establishments in Scotland Gardens in Aberdeen

History

Winter Gardens

Art in Duthie Park

Images

See also

References