As you come up on your right… you’re standing near where Castlehill Barracks once kept watch over Aberdeen. This spot started out with a 12th-century castle up on the hill, the kind of place that made you feel small even before anyone raised their voice. Then, between 1764 and 1796, Aberdeen built proper barracks here-because, at the time, France felt a little too close for comfort.
Picture the scene: boots on stone, shouted orders carried on sharp sea air, and rows of men drilling as if a fleet might appear any minute. Later, the army got more organized. In the 1870s and 1880s, reforms turned these buildings into a recruiting depot-most famously for the Gordon Highlanders, after regiments merged and a big new block went up around 1880 to 1881.
By the early 1900s, though, the place was tired… and by 1935 the soldiers moved out. In the 1940s and 1950s it became emergency housing, and in 1965 it was demolished for flats.
When you’re set, Aberdeen Community Health and Care Village is a 5-minute walk heading northwest.
