Aberdeen’s Castlegate has a rich history and was once the approach to Aberdeen Castle, which was besieged and destroyed by Robert the Bruce in 1308 during the Wars of Independence.
It has been the site of medieval executions, proclamations and celebrations and was transformed into a busy marketplace.
Major streetscape enhancements will be undertaken to re-establish the Castlegate as a key civic location, providing a high-quality space which creates an attractive destination at the east end of Union Street for the benefit of residents, visitors and local businesses.
These works will involve removing the entire surface area of the Castlegate and replacing it with local Avochie granite setts and Scottish whinstone paving, while creating attractive seating and planted areas.
The Mercat Cross, which was designed in 1686, will be sympathetically restored. During the streetscape works, the Gordon Highlanders statue will be removed from its current location and stored. On the completion of the works, it will be restored to a new location on the Castlegate outside the VSA bookshop.
The streetscape works begin in March 2026 and are due for completion in the summer of 2027.
One of the biggest challenges facing the site team are the large number of utility services, such as water, gas, electricity and telecoms, which lie beneath the surface and will need to be diverted to allow the main streetscape works to progress.
There is also the likelihood of discovering uncharted utility services and other unknown obstructions below the surface. Anything found will need to be identified, checked to see if they are still live and then dealt with by the utility service provider. Any such discoveries could cause delays to the works progress.
Access to all shops and businesses will be maintained during the works. All premises will be open for business as normal.
This fly through video shows how the Castlegate will look when the improvement works are completed.
The image below shows the layout of the proposed Castlegate works. Below that are some visuals showing how the completed works will look.
Stakeholder Engagement
The community liaison team for the main contractor, Morrison Construction, have been in regular contact with residents and businesses on the Castlegate to keep them informed of the proposed works and to listen to any concerns they may have.
They will be available during the works to deal with any matters and can be contacted by email on streetscape-market@morrisonconstruction.co.uk. Project information boards will also be in place on the works site hoarding.
Drop-in sessions for residents and businesses are being held on Monday 23 February at Gios by La Lombarda where they can meet site team members and discuss the works. The sessions are:
Session one: 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Session two: 5:00pm – 7:00pm