Aberdeen summary

Learn about the history of Aberdeen City and its role as a major commercial port on the North Sea

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Aberdeen.

Aberdeen, Scotland
Ships serving North Sea oil platforms at dock in the port of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Aberdeen, City, council area (pop., 2001: 212,125), and commercial port on the North Sea, eastern Scotland. It constitutes the council area of Aberdeen, an enclave within the surrounding council area of Aberdeenshire, which was also the name of the historic county of which Aberdeen was the seat. Situated at the mouths of the Rivers Dee and Don, it is the chief port of northern Scotland. It was a royal burgh from the 12th century and a Scottish royal residence in the 12th–14th centuries. It supported Robert the Bruce in wars for Scottish independence, and for a time it was the headquarters of Edward I. From the 1970s Aberdeen developed rapidly as the principal British centre of the North Sea oil industry and its associated service and supply industries.

commercial fishing Summary

Commercial fishing, the taking of fish and other seafood and resources from oceans, rivers, and lakes for the purpose of marketing them. In the early 21st century about 250 million people were directly employed by the commercial fishing industry, and an estimated one billion people depended on fish

Scotland Summary

Scotland, most northerly of the four parts of the United Kingdom, occupying about one-third of the island of Great Britain. The name Scotland derives from the Latin Scotia, land of the Scots, a Celtic people from Ireland who settled on the west coast of Great Britain about the 5th century ce. The

United Kingdom Summary

United Kingdom, island country located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe. The United Kingdom comprises the whole of the island of Great Britain—which contains England, Wales, and Scotland—as well as the northern portion of the island of Ireland. The name Britain is sometimes used to