The Castlegate is at the heart of Aberdeen – and not just because it stands proudly at the end of Union Street.
It is one of the Granite City’s most ancient places with its origins in the medieval past. It’s stories are woven into the fabric of Aberdeen’s history. It has been a site of proclamations, of executions, of celebrations and of commerce as one of our main markets. Join us as we open our archives to take a step back in time at the Castlegate.
The Castlegate as it looked on market day before the Second World War with the clothes and vegetable stalls which later moved to the Market Stance. They are huddled around the elegant arches of the 17th century Mercat Cross.
Dense crowds line the Castlegate and tail down into Union Street to listen to the Accession Declaration of Queen Elizabeth. The date was February 8 1952, just two days after her father’s death while she was in Kenya.
Traditionally, the Castlegate has always been where the city’s Christmas tree is placed to start the festive season. As you can see in 1968, it was placed next to the Mercat Cross on a glorified traffic island in the middle of a bus terminus.
Aberdeen’s finest were on patrol in a snowy Castlegate on December 3 1973. There’s not a Christmas light to be seen, because back then, three weeks before December 25, it was too early to put up your tree – civic or not.
This is the elaborate Cooper Fountain pictured in 1946 when it was at the Castlegate, outside the Citadel, home of the Salvation Army. It is now at Hazlehead Park, just one of many wells and fountains which Aberdeen was noted for.