Torry is a suburb 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 ...
, lying on the south bank of the
River Dee. It was historically part of the county of
Kincardineshire
Kincardineshire or the County of Kincardine, also known as the Mearns (from the Scottish Gaelic meaning "the stewartry"), is a Shires of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area on the ...
and was absorbed into the city of Aberdeen in 1891.
Origin
People have been living in Torry since at least the 12th century. The place name first appears in written records in 1484 and was erected a
burgh of barony
A burgh of barony was a type of Scottish town (burgh).
Burghs of barony were distinct from royal burghs, as the title was granted to a landowner who, as a tenant-in-chief, held his estates directly from the crown. (In some cases, they might also ...
by royal charter from King
James IV
James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauch ...
in 1495.
The first bridge over the
River Dee linking Torry with Aberdeen was built in the 1520s, and Torry's first
pub
A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...
, 'le Sandy Velle', is recorded in 1535, serving travellers from Aberdeen.
[
Over time development in the area became focussed on what became known as 'Old Torry', a fishing community on the south bank of the River Dee, to the north of present day Sinclair Road.
In 1842 the Harbour authorities built two ]leading lights
Leading lights, also known as range lights in the United States, are a pair of light beacons used in navigation to indicate a safe passage for vessels entering a shallow or dangerous channel; they may also be used for position fixing. At nigh ...
in Old Torry to guide ships safely into Aberdeen Harbour
Aberdeen Harbour, rebranded as the Port of Aberdeen in 2022, is a sea port located in the city of Aberdeen on the east coast of Scotland. The port was first established in 1136 and has been continually redeveloped over the centuries to provide ...
. They are still working today.
Some of Old Torry's oldest houses were lost when the River Dee was diverted to enable the first major expansion of Aberdeen Harbour in 1871,[ a development which enabled the construction of the Queen Victoria Bridge, opened in 1881.
Torry was historically part of the parish of Nigg in Kincardineshire. In 1891 Torry was incorporated into the ]burgh
A burgh ( ) is an Autonomy, autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots language, Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when David I of Scotland, King David I created ...
of Aberdeen. Torry remained part of the county of Kincardineshire for certain judicial functions until 1899, when the city of Aberdeen was made a county of itself.
In 1929 the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research set up the Torry Research Station here. Under the leadership of George Adam Reay
Dr George Adam Reay FRSE FRIC CBE (1901–1971) was a 20th-century Scottish biochemist and fish technologist who helped set up the Torry Research Station and served as its first director.
Life
He was born in Aberdeen on 31 May 1901 the son of Ad ...
the station researched how better to preserve fish to mitigate the loss of thousands of tons of fish annually through decay. In 1937 Reay's role was became that Director of the station. Torry freshness
The Torry Freshness Score is a systematic scoring system, originating in the UK, for the freshness of fish, based on an objective sensory assessment method. The tester(s) will smell the fish gill odour to assess the state of freshness. Fish are r ...
was introduced as a measurable quality standard in 1953.
In the 1970s North Sea oil
North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid petroleum and natural gas, produced from petroleum reservoirs beneath the North Sea.
In the petroleum industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian ...
and gas was discovered offshore and there was a rush to develop Aberdeen's infrastructure to suit the industry’s demands. Shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...
proposed to demolish Old Torry in order to construct harbour-side storage for oil and gas. 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 ...
approved plans the plans by 31 votes to 3. The matter went to public enquiry but was approved by the UK Government
His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. . The houses were bought by compulsory purchase
Compulsion, Compulsive, Compelling, or Compulsory may refer to:
Psychology
* Compulsive behavior, a psychological condition in which a person does a behavior compulsively, having an overwhelming feeling that they must do so.
* Obsessive–compu ...
, and in 1974 Old Torry was demolished. Today the site is called the 'Torry Marine Base', part of Aberdeen Harbour.
In 2017 former residents successfully crowdfunded for an information board commemorating Old Torry.
In the 20th century New or Upper Torry developed to the south of Old Torry, moving the centre of modern Torry away from the river and up the hillside.[
]
Land use and economy
Torry remains famous for its fishing community and still has a number of fishing businesses operating close to the Dee as well as the Fisheries Research Laboratory in Victoria Road.
Torry has traditionally been seen as an area of low-cost housing. This has attracted students and more recently migrants from Central and Eastern Europe
Central and Eastern Europe is a geopolitical term encompassing the countries in Baltic region, Northeast Europe (primarily the Baltic states, Baltics), Central Europe (primarily the Visegrád Group), Eastern Europe, and Southeast Europe (primaril ...
, particularly Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
. In June 2006, a Polish shop opened on Victoria Road to cater for the influx of new workers and their families to the Aberdeen area.
The median property sale in 2004 was £34,000 compared to £91,000 in the Aberdeen City area.
Unemployment
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work du ...
in Torry is estimated at around 3 percent which is high for the city. Torry is a neighbourhood highlighted as a priority area for Aberdeen’s Community Regeneration Strategy. The population of Torry in 2011 was 10,465.
The 18-hole Balnagask golf course
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...
offers panoramic city views from the east side of Torry, as well as a vantage point for viewing the dolphin
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...
s which frequently visit the harbour mouth area.
Bridges
Today, Torry is connected to the north bank of the Dee and the centre of Aberdeen by three bridges.
Leading most directly to the centre of Torry, the Queen Victoria Bridge was completed in 1887, following a ferry disaster in 1876 which claimed the lives of 32 people returning from a visit to the Bay of Nigg. The bridge also has facilities for carrying water and gas services across the river.
To the west of the Victoria Bridge lie the Queen Elizabeth Bridge of 1983, and the narrow Wellington Suspension Bridge. The suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...
was designed by Captain Samuel Brown
Captain Sir Samuel Brown of Netherbyres KH FRSE (1776 – 13 March 1852) was an early pioneer of chain design and manufacture and of suspension bridge design and construction. He is best known for the Union Bridge of 1820, the first vehicular s ...
and opened in 1831, replacing the Craiglug ferry. Refurbished in 1930, the category A listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...
was closed to vehicular traffic in 1984 and to pedestrians in March 2002. 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 ...
engineers have strengthened the bridge, and have reopened it as a public footbridge
A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While the primary meaning for a bridge is a structure which links "two points at a ...
.
Garden Suburb
Nicholas J. Williams writes that the transfer, in 1919, of "responsibility for working-class housing from the private sector to the council" meant a vast improvement in housing quality in Aberdeen. The first such houses were built at Torry, and a variety of possible plans were put on show at the Art Gallery in April, 1919. They were the work of the architects William Kelly and Harbourne McLennan and the surveyor John Gordon. The following year it was announced that the building of the "initial instalment" of a proposed 500 houses was well under way. Earth from the excavated roadways around the housing development was being placed on top of the central hill summit, "and a mound, from which a complete view of the city will be obtained, is being built." Ronald W. McDonald, in his history of the area, writes that the "area grew steadily between 1919 and 1933" and suggests that the "hub" of the area was the Torry Intermediate School, "opened on the 29th August 1927, with 305 pupils."
Landmarks and historic buildings
The formerly fortified
A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Lat ...
Torry Battery – last used defensively during the Second World War – is now a scheduled monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...
, protected as a place of historical interest of national importance. Close by are the remains of a rocket-propelled life-saving apparatus station (supplanted as a rescue system by the development of helicopters), and further along the shore road are a disused but preserved foghorn
A foghorn or fog signal is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of navigational hazards such as rocky coastlines, or boats of the presence of other vessels, in foggy conditions. The term is most often used in relation to marine transport. ...
and Robert Stevenson-designed lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Ligh ...
.
The ruin of St. Fittick's Church was built in 1199 and the key is available from the Starter's Hut near the Balnagask golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
clubhouse; the graveyard has remains of many who perished in the Wreck of the ''Oscar'' (1 April 1813), and a road in Torry is named Oscar Road.
Balnagask Motte
A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or Bailey (castle), bailey, surrounded by a protective Rampart (fortificati ...
, near North Balnagask Road, may be the remains of the earthen mound which would have been the base of an early wooden castle, but it has never been the subject of archaeological investigation.
Notable people
*Annie Lennox
Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician Dave Stewart w ...
, singer-songwriter formerly of Eurythmics
Eurythmics were a British New wave music, new wave duo formed in 1980, consisting of Scottish vocalist Annie Lennox and English musician and producer Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), Dave Stewart. They were both previously in the Tourists, a band t ...
* Thomas Scott Sutherland, architect
References
External links
Book of Saint Fitticks - History of Torry
Conversation among Torry residents about accent, dialect and ways of life
{{Areas of Aberdeen
Areas of Aberdeen
Royal burghs
History of Aberdeen