Fraserburgh, or ‘The Broch’ as its colloquially known, is a historic town located in the north east of Scotland. It celebrated its 400th anniversary as a Royal Burgh in 1992 and main attractions in the town include the Scottish Lighthouse Museum, the Heritage Centre, and The Wyne Tower. Fraserburgh is the birthplace of Thomas Blake Glover, founder of Mitsubishi and a pioneer of industry in Japan. It is also noted that in the south gallery on Sunday, 24th April, 1904, Signor G Marconi, the pioneer of wireless communication, during one of his two visits to Fraserburgh, worshipped in the Old Parish Church.
The town’s name comes from the Clan Fraser, who settled in Scotland in the 12th century. Sir William Fraser of Philorth purchased the lands of Tyrie and Faithlie in 1504 and his son, Alexander Fraser, received a charter from Mary Queen of Scots establishing the town of Faithlie as a free burgh. The town was renamed Fraserburgh in 1592.
The town grew from fishing, and to this day is a prosperous and major fishing port in the North East of Scotland. Fraserburgh was the site of the first lighthouse to be erected on the mainland of Scotland, which was decommissioned in 1991 and now serves as part of Scotland’s Lighthouse Museum, a major attraction in the region competing with other fine facilities worth visiting such as Fraserburgh Heritage Centre and Aberdeen Maritime Museum to name but a few. Other attractions around the region include the Formartine and Buchan Way, which utilises the old railway line and is a cycle, walkway and nature reserve which begins at Fraserburgh Beach and carries on throughout many of the surrounding villages eventually reaching Dyce, the site of Aberdeen Airport. Also, there are many National Trust, Historic Scotland and independent attractions around including Fyvie Castle, Haddo House, Duff House, Delgatie Castle, the Nature Reserve at Crimond, The Observation Tower at Mintlaw, Aden Park and many more.
Today Fraserburgh is an expanding town with many recent developments and businesses are currently showing keen interest in the area, with Tesco, Argos, Youngs and Lidl being among some of the larger names having established themselves here in the last 5 years. A rejuvenation scheme was set up in the town a few years ago which transformed the town centre. A large scale housing scheme has been planned which will replace a derelict industrial area of the town. The current plans will give the coastal houses a beautiful view of the untouched historic Broadsea village.
How to find Fraserburgh
Fraserburgh on Google Maps
Fraserburgh on Multimap
For further reading on the town of Fraserburgh please visit www.visitfraserburgh.com
