Aberdeen is on the North East coast of Scotland. The harbour there, at the mouth of the river Dee, has been in commercial use since 1136 according to records, but the Dee estuary was probably utilised as a port for many moons preceding that. For a long time Aberdeen’s economy was centered around fishing, textiles, shipbuilding and paper making. These were over-shadowed in the 1970s by the discovery of large deposits of crude oil just off the coast in the relatively shallow waters of the North Sea. I have a feeling that this discovery catalysed some sort of civic mutation. Continue reading “The ramp in the park”