The Harbour Town of Peterhead, Scotland August 11th, 2009
Peterhead is a city located at the most eastern point of the country of Scotland. Most of the city, the houses, businesses and Peterhead hotels are located on the peninsula, bordered on one side by the Ugie River, and on the other side by the Bay of Peterhead. This town has throughout four hundred years, has been greatly influenced by the ocean. In the early days of the town’s founding, this was a small fishing town. At that time most of the fifty residents lived on the island of Keith Inch, which is still a section of the town in modern times. Most of the activity along the port took place between the Island and the mainland, through travel on the channel that lay sheltered between the two bodies of land. During the mid 1700’s a bridge was built which connected the island to the mainland. Two harbours were built, one in 1770 by John Smeaton, and the North Harbour was built by Thomas Telford in the 1820’s.
Once the first harbour was constructed the town became a fancy spa and resort town. There are mineral springs located throughout the village, and many traveled from other parts of Europe to relax. And while the business of tourism was thriving, and many visitors often built houses in Peterhead once they had visited the town, the industry that really changed life for the residents was that of the whaling industry. Due to the ports, the town became of the most successful ports in all of Great Britain. This boom lasted for just over sixty years, but the changes in the oil industry, led to the end of the whaling industry in Peterhead by 1892. However the city is still a fishing town, and by the mid 1970’s was the largest port bringing in whitefish, the largest now not only of Great Britain, but throughout the rest of Europe as well.
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