Duthie Park, Aberdeen City

We expect those local to Duthie Park have been making full use of its beautiful scenery for walks during the various lockdowns in Scotland and the City of Aberdeen. Although the David Welch Winter Gardens are closed, a walk of the park still provides ample fresh air and stunning views of the ‘linked lakes’, the rose mound, the bandstand and the McGrigor Obelisk Memorial.

Have you seen the Hygeia Statue too? Located at the east side of Duthie Park, the statue was unveiled in 1897 to commemorate Miss Duthie (Miss Elizabeth Crombie Duthie of Ruthrieston) who purchased the park in 1880.

The park was presented to the City of Aberdeen Town Council under the condition that it was to be used to perpetuate the memory of Miss Duthie’s relatives and provide a space for the recreational use of the City’s inhabitants. The agreement read as follows: 

‘Whereas Miss Duthie is desirous, out of the means and estate to which she has succeeded by the death of her uncle, the late Walter Duthie, W.S., Edinburgh, and of her brother, the late Alexander Duthie, Advocate in Aberdeen, to perpetuate the memory of her said relatives and their hereditary connection with the City of Aberdeen, as well as to evince her own interest in the said City and in the wellbeing of its inhabitants, and with this view has resolved to present to the Town Council a Public Park or Pleasure Ground […] for the recreation, use, and behoof of the inhabitants of the said City of Aberdeen’

Consisting of the 44-acre estate of Arthurseat, situated by the banks of the River Dee, Duthie Park was designed by William R McKelvie of Dundee and officially opened on 27th September 1883 by HRH Princess Beatrice.

Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Archives hold images of this day in their collections. The number of people who crowded to the event demonstrates the great excitement for this new space and positivity toward Miss Duthie's gift.

Miss Duthie’s memorial can be found in the Kirkyard at the Kirk of St Nicholas. The Epitaph reads ‘Her best and most enduring memorial is the park she gave to her fellow citizens’. Why not pay her a visit to honour Women's History Month and her fabulous contribution to the green spaces of Aberdeen?

Kimberley Smith, Archivist