Aberdeen Tall Ships 2025 | fishing villages, seaside, coastal views | Scotland VLOG

Aberdeen Tall Ships 2025 | fishing villages, seaside, coastal views | Scotland VLOG

Hi everyone! We’re in Aberdeen this weekend for a very exciting event. It’s going to be a weekend spent by the sea and we have lots planned. We are here for the Tall Ships! The Tall Ships Races is an annual international sailing event. Aberdeen is one of the host ports this year. The last time Aberdeen hosted the event was in 1997. The Tall Ships are docked at the harbour for everyone to see. There is also music, food and market stalls. Over 400,000 people are expected to attend. It’s completely free! It’s super busy already! Our first glimpse of the ships! We’re in! The size of some of these ships is so impressive! They’re all decked out with nautical bunting. The race is a multi-country event. The ships arrived here yesterday from Dunkirk in France. And they’ll be sailing on to Kristiansand in Norway in a few days’ time. The race will finish in Esbjerg in Denmark this year. Some people have even taken to the water to paddleboard! 49 ships are visiting in total. The ship on the right is one of the biggest Class A ships all the way from Peru! It’s absolutely huge with 4 masts. The ship is called the B.A.P. Unión. It is a training ship for the Peruvian Navy. It has 150 permanent crew members – wow! A British Navy ship is here too – the H.M.S. Mersey. The boats go all the way around the harbour so there is lots to see. Another A class ship has also come from South America. The Capitan Miranda from Uruguay looks small compared to the North Link Ferry that goes to Orkney and Shetland! Capitan Miranda is almost 100 years old. It was launched in 1930 as a cargo vessel. Another one of the Class A ships. This one is much newer. It is from Poland and was built in 1982. These numbers are called Draft Marks. They show the distance (in 12 inch increments) to the lowest point of the ship. This ship is from Oman. The Shabab Oman II is a sail training ship for the Royal Navy of Oman. You can get on board some of the ships but the queues were really long so we admired from the dock. The figurehead is of 15th century navigator Ahmad ibn Majid. Some smaller ships are docked alongside one another. All the ladders and lines are so complex! The scale is truly breathtaking. Here comes the Morgenster! It’s the second oldest Class A ship here (1919) from the Netherlands. It’s returning from its Day Cruise. You could book in advance to go on a 2-hour cruise out to the North Sea. The harbour is too narrow for it to turn itself so it needs some assistance! Who knew a wee boat could be so strong! The seahorse figurehead is lovely! The Thalassa has a traditional mermaid figurehead. We’ve reached the end of the north side of the harbour but there are still so many ships to see. At 12:30pm all the ships honked their horns for a solid minute. It was incredibly loud! We got some food and drinks from the stalls. We’re refreshed and ready to see more ships!! The SØRLANDET from Norway can be chartered. It also offers cruises where individuals can join as trainees. You can learn how to be a helmsman, participate in active sail manoeuvres and learn to climb the masts! Everyone says the seagulls in Aberdeen are massive but… Terrifying A huge octopus is also making its way through the crowd! It’s a little quieter at this side and we can see some nice details on the ships. Beautiful wooden helm You can appreciate the size of the B.A.P Unión even better from this side of the harbour. We’ve reached the end! Looking back at all the masts against the skyline of Aberdeen city is so magnificent. Someone is spraying a water cannon off the H.M.S. Mersey! Just as we’re leaving, we’ve spotted a party on board one of the ships. The Scottish Fisherman’s Federation have invited people on board this ship for drinks and live music. What a fantastic event! Time to head home for the day. Tomorrow we’re going to explore more of Aberdeen’s coast. See you then! Good morning! We have come to the Aberdeen beach front. The sea is wild. The tide is just going out. We’re splitting up this morning. One of us is going to walk the esplanade with our dog… …and the other is going to a beach-front sauna! You know we love a sauna. At the south end of the esplanade there are lots of food trucks and multiple mobile saunas. There is even a place to hire surfboards. This is Seabiscuit Sauna. It is made from a converted horsebox. I have the place to myself this morning! I brought my own sauna hat with me but they have some to borrow too. A cool 70ºC. Oh look it’s one of the Tall Ships sailing out to sea. What a great view! Spotted from the esplanade too. You can go into the North Sea to cool off from the sauna but the waves are still crazy! Some people are braving it… I don’t want to get swept away so I’m going to stand in the splash-zone! Splash cam POV – you are being splashed Just a little chilly but it was a refreshing session. Now we’re going to head to a cute little fishing village at the end of the beach. Welcome to Footdee or “Fittie” as it is known locally. The former fishing village is made up of beautiful 19th century cottages. The houses are organised in squares with their backs to the sea to protect them from the elements. Most houses also have a separate garden and ‘tarry shed’ opposite. Some sheds are now businesses or small studios. Around every corner there are unique colours, styles and designs. It’s so cute! Many people really put in the effort to make the place look nice. People have been living in this area since at least the 14th century. But the current settlement we see today was designed by John Smith – the same architect of Balmoral Castle. A map in 1828 referred to Fittie as “Fish Town” haha It’s such a lovely place to wander. Fittie is a real hidden gem! They’re all decked out for the tall ships. They’ve got nautical bunting here too. We’re loving all the hand-painted details! Even the taps are unique! Look at this distinguished gentleman. Salty sea cat Ahoy there! We’ve spotted the Tall Ships we saw earlier in the distance. Looks like they’re returning to harbour. Let’s go see them coming in. Bye for now, Fittie! Just round the corner, we can walk to the harbour entrance. We’re just in time for the Morgenster returning from sea. It’s so majestic to see the ship sailing with the power of the wind. Obviously the ships couldn’t have their sails out at harbour yesterday so it’s really cool to see them in action. This is the final cruise while the ships are in town. The ships have one more rest day tomorrow then will begin the journey to Kristiansand in two days’ time. Goodbye Morgenster! ‘Morning Star’ in Dutch we’ve learned. Blasting the bagpipe tunes….okay…. A second tall ship, the Wylde Swan, is also coming in. It’s the largest two-mast topsail schooner in the world apparently. We need to brush up on our tall ship terminology to understand what that means… It’s time for some coffee. We’re going right over there… Let’s head back to the car. Catch you on the other side. We have come to the Greyhope Bay Centre for a hot drink and to hopefully see some dolphins. It’s situated on the stunning cliffside near the Girdle Ness Lighthouse. There is a small cafe and benches outside for wildlife watching. There are even binoculars you can borrow while sipping your coffee. We’re going to get a couple of hot drinks and some cakes. Such a cosy spot! You can often see bottlenose dolphins in the sea here. But we’re not having much luck today… We see all the way into the harbour though. Still no dolphins but we’ve spotted a rescue boat patrolling. It’s the VOS Glory. We’re going to watch the world go by before we go to our last seaside destination of the trip. We have come a little further south to the another old fishing village called Cove. The old village of Cove is separated by train tracks from the newer residential area. Let’s take a wander down to the harbour. Just before crossing the train tracks there is a local store and post office. Look at this cute knitted cosy for the postbox. This marble statue commemorates Isie Caie – Cove’s last traditional fishwife. She would carry heavy baskets of fish on her back and walk all the way to Aberdeen city to sell at market. The coastline is beautiful but difficult to see today because of the haar. The haar is sea fog that occurs on the East Coast of Scotland in the summertime. It occurs when warm air passes over the cold North Sea. On the harbour path, there are these interesting carved rocks. We’ve made to end of the harbour path and the end of our trip to Aberdeen. It’s been a great weekend spent by the sea. Thanks for watching. See you next time!

Welcome back everyone! In today’s video we’ve taken a special trip up to Aberdeen to see the Tall Ships as they return to the city for the first time since 1997. We also explore the seaside and local fishing villages. Please enjoy! 🙂

Watch in 4K
Captions (auto-translate) available
Travel date: 19th – 20th July 2025

00:00 Introduction
00:22 Tall Ships
09:44 Aberdeen Beach and Sauna
12:32 Fittie
16:23 Tall Ships sailing
18:35 Greyhope Bay
20:02 Cove
22:09 Thanks for watching!

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