Tall Ships Aberdeen 2025

Elizabeth got to perform as part of SC&T (Scottish Culture & Traditions) in The Tall Ships Races 2025 in Aberdeen this morning. She gets lots of opportunities to perform with SC&T and they’re always excellent. Today was no exception. The sound and projection from the stage was particularly good. The only downside was it started at 9:30am this morning and there was hardly anyone there to hear it other than parents.

Elizabeth had to be there for 8am this morning so we left home at 7:30am as it’s about a half hour walk to the harbour from our house. I don’t know why they made them arrive so early when it didn’t start until 9:30am. She told me afterwards they were just standing around backstage for much of that time.

It didn’t open to spectators until after 9am so I wandered about aimlessly wiling away the time. I walked down to Fittie where I saw a very healthy fox.

There was also a seal swimming in the harbour. I didn’t capture the seal on camera as it went underwater too quickly for me but the fox, seal, and hundreds of sea birds made me think what an important area it is for wildlife. There are dolphins here too although I didn’t spot any this morning. What’s even more surprising is it’s an industrial and dreadfully ugly harbour – not at all inviting for people all wildlife – but somehow the animals survive. Are they thriving? I don’t know. Certainly the salmon are struggling which will likely impact the seals and dolphins. The oil industry has completely transformed what was once a fishing village.

The transformation happened mid last century so I never saw what it looked like before the oil industry changed it but there are old photos and postcards online like this one from the 1920s.

There’s now 6 foot high metal security fencing preventing entry to members of the public and about a mile of ugly cylinders like this.

The air often smells quite polluted in this area and I’m never sure if that’s due to the traffic or the oil tankers that come in and out all day everyday. The Port of Aberdeen describes it as Europe’s premier port for the oil and gas industry with modern infrastructure.

I wondered whether Stavanger in Norway is similarly plagued with the ugly reality of offshore oil and gas but somehow they’ve managed to retain a beautiful harbour that locals can access.

Now that I’ve had my whinge I’ll return to the main event which was listening to Elizabeth play the violin. The main stage is huge which was exciting for Elizabeth even if there weren’t many people there to hear it.

Next to the main stage are, you guessed it, more oil and gas cylinders.

I recorded some of their songs. This is Walking on the Waves.

And this is a great bothy ballad about a young farm worker in Delgaty, Aberdeenshire: The Barnyards of Delgaty.

Afterwards we went and took a closer look at the tall ships. This is an annual event primarily for young people to learn skills needed to work on a tall ship and to encourage international friendship and cooperation. The event began in 1956 at a time when tall ships were at risk of becoming extinct. A retired London solicitor dreamt up the idea as a way to bring young people together to learn how to sail and preserve not just the ships but the knowledge.

The last time they came to Aberdeen was in 1997 so we’re very lucky to have them here and there were definitely a lot of people there. The crowds were huge despite it still being fairly early in the day. The ships are beautiful.