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Visit Fraserburgh and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:
Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire. On Kinnaird Head, the castle, converted into a lighthouse, forms the pivot around which Fraserburgh is built. A little rocky mound with a shelter upon it, where you may sit and contemplate both, is all that separates the lighthouse from the busy harbour. Behind them stretches the “sea-washed town between the flat land of the plain and the brief rock”. Kinnaird was the “hill of watch” from which Alexander Fraser, the 7th Laird of Philorth, kept an eye on his creation. “Whereas,” says the charter granted in 1546, “Alexander Fraser of Philorth, for the convenience of his neighbours has built a harbour upon the seashore in which ships overtaken by storms may be able to find refuge, we erect the town of Faithlie into a free burgh of barony...” At that time there was no castle. It was built by his grandson soon after he succeeded to the baron All 1569, when he continued the work of town building with the erection of “public buildings and fine streets”. Three more charters followed, the last of which refers to “the town now called Fraserburgh” and empowers Fraser to build and endow a university.
Only the central tower (on a rectangular plan, but much altered) of the castle that the 8th Sir Alexander Fraser built in 1570 remains today. Four floors of the original house survive, but the fifth was removed in 1787 to make way for the lantern-chamber of Kinnaird Head lighthouse, the first to be built by the Commissioners of Northern Lights. But, if the castle itself has been changed almost out of recognition, the Wine Tower, on its rock at the foot of the castle wynd, is virtually unaltered and is therefore the oldest house in Fraserburgh, for it dates from the 16th century and was built at the same time as, if not before, the castle. Its romantic name is a cheat; it cannot have been built as a “wine store”, whether or not it was used for that purpose in after years. It was probably a watch-tower against the menace of seaborne invasion.
Fraserburgh University was erected in 1595 with a grant from the Scottish Parliament. Unfortunately the first principal incurred King James VI's displeasure by taking part in the General Assembly of 1605; he was placed under arrest, and in his absence the infant seat of learning collapsed and never recovered.
Despite its exposed position, modern Fraserburgh is a most attractive and finely planned town with a long sandy beach to the East. In the past 160 years its population has risen from under 2,000 to over 12,000. In 1914 it had a fleet of over 200 herring drifters. Today the big decline in the herring industry has been closely balanced by the compensatory development of white fishing and by food-processing plants.
Nearby towns: Banff, Macduff, Mintlaw, Peterhead
Nearby villages: Blackmill, Cairness, Crimond, Fetterangus, Inverallochy, New Aberdour, New Leads, New Pitsligo, Pennan, Pittulie, Rathen, Rosehearty, Sandhaven, St. Combs, Strichen
Have you decided to visit Fraserburgh or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:
- a Fraserburgh bed and breakfast (a Fraserburgh B&B or Fraserburgh b and b)
- a Fraserburgh guesthouse
- a Fraserburgh hotel (or motel)
- a Fraserburgh self-catering establishment, or
- other Fraserburgh accommodation
Accommodation in Fraserburgh:
Find availability in a Fraserburgh bed and breakfast, also known as B&B or b and b, guesthouse, small hotel, self-catering or other accommodation.