Duthie Park
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Duthie Park is a public park in the
Ferryhill Ferryhill is a towns in England, town and civil parish in County Durham (district), County Durham, England, with an estimated population in 2018 of 9,362. The town grew in the 1900s around the coal mining industry. The last mine officially clo ...
area of
Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...
,
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
located near the River Dee. It comprises of land given to the council in 1881 by Elizabeth Crombie 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 Duthie in 1880 for the 'wellbeing and recreation of Aberdeen residents', a process which started on 4 August of that year. It was opened by Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom on 27 September 1883. 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 Au ...
'', featuring a team from Aberdeen against a team from
Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Angus, Scotland, Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast, some east-northeast of ...
, was staged in Duthie Park on 10 May 1970 and transmitted on
BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...
on 13 May 1970. An episode of the children's programme '' Play School'', transmitted Monday 3 May 1976, visited Duthie Park in 1976. In 2013 paddle boats were reintroduced to the park. Kayaks are regularly offered in the boating pond. 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 Aberdeen City Council is the Local government in Scotland, local authority for Aberdeen City, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. In its modern form it was created in 1996. Aberdeen was formerly governed by a municipal corporation, corporat ...
. 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, Aberdeen, 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. I ...
.


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 (biology), family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the Tropics, tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and on ...
s and of giant cacti respectively in
Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...
(second to the
Eden Project The Eden Project () is a visitor attraction in Cornwall, England. The project is located in a reclaimed china clay clay pit, pit.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer Map 107 – Fowey, Looe & Lostwithiel''. . The complex is dominated by two h ...
in
Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
). Originally opened in 1899, the greenhouses had to be demolished and rebuilt after suffering storm damage in 1969 and the gardens subsequently reopened on 8 April 1970. The gardens contain a range of plants including tree ferns,
Spanish moss Spanish moss (''Tillandsia usneoides'') is an Epiphyte, epiphytic flowering plant that often grows upon large trees in tropical and subtropical climates. It is native to much of Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Central America, South America (as far ...
, anthuria, and
banana trees A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...
. 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. The Japanese Garden is an outdoor area of the Winter Gardens, 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 has b ...
and
Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...
. In 2002, the Winter Gardens were renamed the David Welch Winter Gardens after David Welch, Aberdeen's former director of parks. The gardens closed to the public due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
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 39 ft. pole activated to play different notes by standing on underground foot pads and was donated by the
Electrical Association for Women The Electrical Association for Women (EAW) was a feminist and educational organisation founded in Great Britain in 1924 to promote the benefits of electricity in the home. History The Electrical Association for Women developed in 1924 from a p ...
's Aberdeen branch. The installation was later referred to as the Honking Horns. The J.J.R. Macleod memorial statue was unveiled on 12 October 2023. This celebrated the 100th anniversary of Macleod's joint award of the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology in 1923, for his role in the discovery of
Insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the insulin (''INS)'' gene. It is the main Anabolism, anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabol ...
. The statue was created by Ayrshire sculptor, John McKenna and sits within and expanded area of the park known as Macleod's corner. A standing statue of the greek goddess
Hygieia Hygieia is a goddess from Greek mythology (more commonly spelled Hygeia, sometimes Hygiea; ; or , or ). Hygieia is a goddess of health ( – ''hugieia''), cleanliness and hygiene. Her name is the source for the word "hygiene". Hygieia devel ...
was completed by John Cassidy, a sculptor, in 1897. She stands atop a decorative Corinthian column with four recumbant lions at the base, on the eastern edge of the park. Hygieia, the goddess of health, is depicted holding a cup, from which a snake drinks. The Duthie Fountain was presented in 1883 by Duthie. Made by A. MacDonald & Co. of pink Peterhead granite with four carved swans with folded wings supporting a polished basin.


Images

Image:Duthie Park - Winter Gardens.jpg, Temperate House in the Winter Gardens Image:Duthie Park - ferns.jpg,
Fern The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissue ...
s in the Winter Gardens Image:Duthie Park - cacti.jpg,
Cacti A cactus (: cacti, cactuses, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae (), a family of the order Caryophyllales comprising about 127 genera with some 1,750 known species. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, ...
in the
Arid Aridity is the condition of geographical regions which make up approximately 43% of total global available land area, characterized by low annual precipitation, increased temperatures, and limited water availability.Perez-Aguilar, L. Y., Plata ...
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 c ...
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 treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...
s in the Winter Gardens Duthie Park cafe.jpg, The park cafe Duthie Park Winter Gardens.jpg, Entrance to the Winter Gardens


See also

* Green spaces and walkways in Aberdeen


References

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