13 July 2018:
Aberdeen, Scotland, UK:
Taken for Granite

By Corey Sandler

Aberdeen—the Granite City, the Grey City, the Silver City with the Golden Sands—is Scotland’s third most populous city, after Glasgow and Edinburgh.

So why do we take Aberdeen for Granite?

From the mid-18th to the mid-20th centuries, most of Aberdeen’s buildings used locally quarried grey granite. And because of the large amount of mica in this particular strain of granite, many of the buildings can seem to sparkle like silver in the sunlight.

Today, I went with guests for a visit to Balmoral Castle, one of the private residences of the royal family, renovated and expanded by Queen Victoria and still in use by Queen Elizabeth II.

It is in a beautiful setting, and the grounds include a vegetable and flower garden that puts most of the rest of to shame. Of course, we don’t have a staff of dozens of gardeners.

BALMORAL

All photos by Corey Sandler, 2018. All rights reserved,

A local food specialty—guaranteed not to affect your health in any way whatsoever—is the Aberdeen buttery, also known as “rowie”.

It is something like a flat, round croissant with a buttery taste. Purists can eat one plain, but for the full experience it should have butter and jam.

If you really want to go whole hog, or to be more precise, whole sheep, you could start out with a serving of haggis, which is the national dish of Scotland,

Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep’s pluck: the heart, liver, and lungs, minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, traditionally encased in the animal’s stomach although today it is often prepared in an artificial casing which makes it all seem so much more attractive.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

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