Torry
Encyclopedia
Setting and historical development
Torry, lying on the south bank of the River DeeRiver Dee, Aberdeenshire
The River Dee is a river in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It rises in the Cairngorms and flows through Strathdee to reach the North Sea at Aberdeen...
, was once a Royal Burgh
Royal burgh
A royal burgh was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished in 1975, the term is still used in many of the former burghs....
in its own right, having been erected a burgh of barony
Burgh of barony
A burgh of barony is a type of Scottish town .They were distinct from royal burghs as the title was granted to a tenant-in-chief, a landowner who held his estates directly from the crown....
in 1495. It was incorporated into Aberdeen in 1891, after the construction of the Victoria Bridge, itself made possible by the 1871 channelling of the River Dee which had previously followed an unstable course to the sea. The channelling also enabled further expansion of the harbour.
Torry is connected to the north bank of the Dee and the centre of Aberdeen by three bridges. Leading most directly to the centre of Torry, the Victoria Bridge was completed in 1887, following a ferry disaster
River Dee Ferry Boat Disaster
The River Dee Ferry Boat Disaster, 5 April 1876, drowned 32 people in the mouth of the River Dee, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.-Context:The city of Aberdeen lies at the mouth of the River Dee. At the time of the disaster, on the south bank was the separate Royal Burgh of Torry; in 1891 this was...
in 1876 which claimed the lives of 32 people returning from a visit to the Bay of Nigg. The bridge also has facilities for carrying water and gas services across the river. To the west of the Victoria Bridge lie the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge of 1983, and the narrow Wellington Suspension Bridge. The suspension bridge
Suspension bridge
A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...
was designed by Captain Samuel Brown and opened in 1831, replacing the Craiglug ferry. Refurbished in 1930, the Category A listed building was closed to vehicular traffic in 1984 and to pedestrians in March 2002. Aberdeen City Council
Aberdeen City Council
Aberdeen City Council represents the Aberdeen City council area of Scotland.The council area was created in 1996, under the Local Government etc. Act 1994...
engineers have strengthened the bridge, and have reopened it as a public footbridge.
Land use and economy
Torry includes a large housing estate developed as a "garden suburb" to relieve overcrowding in Aberdeen. It is famous for its fishing community and still has a number of fishing businesses operating close to the Dee. However, most of the old fishermen's cottages of Old Torry have been swept away by first the channelling of the River Dee, then later by modern industry, particularly North sea oilNorth Sea oil
North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid oil and natural gas, produced from oil reservoirs beneath the North Sea.In the oil industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea and the area known as "West of Shetland", "the Atlantic Frontier" or "the...
at Torry Quay. Torry is also home to the Fisheries Research Laboratory in Victoria Road, as well as Craiginches prison.
Torry has traditionally been seen as an area of low-cost housing. This has attracted students and more recently economic migrants from Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
and particularly Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
A Polish shop opened in Victoria Road in June 2006 to cater for the influx of new workers and their families to the Aberdeen area.
The median property sale in 2004 was £34,000 compared to £91,000 in the Aberdeen City area.
Unemployment in Torry is estimated at around 3 percent which is relatively high for the city. Torry is a neighbourhood highlighted as a priority area for Aberdeen's Community Regeneration Strategy. Currently around 8800 people are estimated to live in Torry.
The Balnagask 18 hole golf course
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
offers panoramic city views from the east side of Torry, as well as a good vantage point for viewing the dolphins which frequently visit the harbour mouth area.
Landmarks and historic buildings
Torry Battery
The Torry Battery is an artillery battery near Torry in Aberdeen, Scotland which has overlooked the city's harbour since 1860. During both World War I and World War II it was used to defend the city.-Further reading:***...
— last used defensively in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
— is now a scheduled ancient monument, protected as a place of historical interest of national importance. Close by are the remains of a rocket-propelled life-saving apparatus station (supplanted as a rescue system by the development of helicopters), and further along the shore road are a disused but preserved foghorn
Foghorn
A foghorn or fog signal or fog bell is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of hazards or boats of the presence of other vehicles in foggy conditions. The term is most often used in relation to marine transport...
and Robert Stevenson
Robert Stevenson (civil engineer)
Robert Stevenson FRSE MInstCE FSAS MWS FGS FRAS FSA was a Scottish civil engineer and famed designer and builder of lighthouses.One of his finest achievements was the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse.-Early life:...
-designed lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
.
Also of historical interest is the ruin of St. Fittick's Church, built 1199, the key to which is available from the Starter's Hut near the Balnagask golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
clubhouse.
Balnagask Motte
Motte-and-bailey
A motte-and-bailey is a form of castle, with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised earthwork called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade...
, near North Balnagask Road, may be the remains of the earthen mound which would have been the base of an early wooden castle, but it has never been the subject of archaeological investigation.
Buildings in Torry are often used in the annual Doors Open Day
Doors Open Days Scotland
Doors Open Days provides free access to buildings not normally open to the public. The first Doors Open Day took place in France in 1984, and the concept has spread to other places in Europe , North America, and elsewhere....
event which takes place in September each year. This is a great opportunity to obtain a free viewing of interesting locales both old and new. The programme for 2006 shows Tullos Primary School and the FRS Marine Laboratory as participating.
See also
- The role of fortifications such as the Torry Battery in World War IIBritish anti-invasion preparations of World War IIBritish anti-invasion preparations of the Second World War entailed a large-scale division of military and civilian mobilisation in response to the threat of invasion by German armed forces in 1940 and 1941. The British army needed to recover from the defeat of the British Expeditionary Force in...