PETERHEAD
Thanks to the foresight of its earlier builders who created a splendid harbour, or series of harbours for the prosperous fishing
industry, Peterhead was ready made to meet the demands of North Sea oil and gas exploration and development, with facilities for the wide variety of craft and services, ranging from
small lenders to pipe-laying barges and an occasional oil rig.
By the mid 1970s Peterhead was a boom town with the influx of men and woman from every country in Western Europe and the United Stales.
Peterhead with its fine fleet was also the most important fishing port north of Aberdeen bringing both herring and white fish.
George Keith, the 5lh Earl Marischal founded Peterhead in 1593, the only relic of the Keiths' reign is the fragmentary ruin of 'their
16-cent Inverugie Castle.
In I 728 the superiority of the estate of Peterhead had been acquired by the Governors of the Merchant Maiden Hospital in Edinburgh it was not until 1833 that a representative town
council was elected.
At the end of the 18th cent the town became a fashionable spa with a Wine Well and other waters, but soon afterwards it was to become the
whaling capital of Scotland. In 1820 fifteen whalers brought in 103 Atlantic whales.
The herring boom followed the decline of whaling more recently fishing has been diversified with fish processing plants, and now
Peterhead has its new boom with the huge Harbour providing Refuge to the many sailing vessels that visit this doorway to the highlands of sot land.
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