Peterhead, the most easterly town on the Scottish mainland is situated about 33 miles north-east of Aberdeen . This remote corner of Scotland is not so well known as the Highlands and Islands, but possesses its own unique charm with its towering cliffs, golden beaches, gently rolling countryside, quiet historic villages and surging seas, a quiet corner of the realm where the pace of life is just that much slower. As recent archaeological excavations suggest the town dates back into Pre-historic times. The ancient name of the parish of Peterhead was Peter Ugie (Latin Inverugy Petri) and is found in old charters, formerly to be of much greater extent than at present.

Peterhead was developed from 5th Century pictish settlements at the mouths of River Ugie and Kirkburn. Its name is an abbreviation of 'St Peter's headland', and was taken from a church dedicated to St Peter that was built on the shores of the same bay in the 12th or 13th century. This, and two castles, Ravenscraig and Inverugie, built next to the River Ugie a mile or two north of the church, were the earliest significant settlements in the area.

Around 1380, Sir John de Keith, owner of Inverugie Castle , founded a fishing village called Keithinch on the most south-easterly point of the headland, and this eventually became known as 'Fishertown of Peterhead'. Small settlements which coalesced until the town was founded around Port Henry harbour in the 16 th century.

Peterhead , as it is known today was founded by George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal following the granting of a charter by James VI creating a burgh of barony and giving a charter allowing a harbour to be built in 1587, in 1593 the burgh was elevated to royal burgh status despite having a population of approximately 200. Apart from a short period as a fashionable 18th-century spa, Peterhead is best known for its fishing heritage: in the 19th century as the chief British whaling centre; herring for most part of the 20th century and in the latter part this gave way in favour of whitefish to supply local fish-processing plants, sadly an industry which has survived centuries is in decline today

A Celtic church is said to have been established, in the 8th century, near the Kirk Burn where, in 1132, a church dedicated to St Peter was endowed with lands to the sea-ward side of present day Balmoor Terrace. The long ecclesiastical association with St. Peter has said to account for the name of the town but, alternatively, it may have derived from 'Pett-ayr-uisge', meaning the ' Homestead by the water'.

The Buchan coast was inhabited by a clan of Celts known as the Zaizoloi, who were chiefly fisherman supplemented by agriculture and hunting. Living in circles of earth houses, around sheltered bays or shallow estuaries, there are still signs of a community near the Kirkburn on the links.

There are a number of pre-historic cairns and burial chambers in the area as well, one being Cairn Catto which is situated 4 miles SW of Peterhead.

The first reference to the port of Peterhead was by Aberdeen Town Council in 1573 complaining that Peterhead was taking away some of its rightful trade. This may have referred to the harbour at Almanythie Creek, used from prehistoric times. Almanythie (old man's haven) failed to provide safe anchorage during stormy weather. Alternatively, this could have referred to the bays between the headland and the island now called Keith Inch, which did provide a weather shelter except when the gales were from the east.

Other well known associates with Peterhead include

Rev. James Keith 1696 - 1753 was born in Peterhead but because of his Jacobite sympathies he emigrated to Virginia and married Mary Isham Randolph who was a direct descendant of Pocahontas. Other famous names associated with this family were Robert E Lee and Thomas Jefferson. Peterhead certainly has its share of being associated with famous names

The Arbuthnot family of the Peterhead area came from the Mearns in the mid-sixteenth century. As landowners and merchants they were an important family locally. Notable members included John Arbuthnot (d 1735), Physician to Queen Anne; Charles Arbuthnot (1739-1820), last Lord Abbot of Ratisbon; George Arbuthnot (1775-1847), 1st Provost of Peterhead 1833-34; and Thomas Arbuthnot (b 1792), 2nd Provost of Peterhead 1834-43.

Thomas Arbuthnot (1681-1762), the 'Old Bailie', was Baron Bailie of Peterhead to the 10th and last Earl Marischal. The Old Bailie's son, Thomas (1727-1773), was a Lieutenant at Culloden in the Jacobite army. Adam Arbuthnott (1773-1850), son of the younger Thomas, was the founder of the Arbuthnot Museum (Arbuthnot, 1920).

Retiring from merchant business about 1820, Adam Arbuthnot devoted his leisure to the acquisition of a collection of antiquities, coins and objects in natural history. By 1837 his museum had become well known locally and the writer of the 'New Statistical Account' of Peterhead commented that 'the museum is not always accessible to the public' (Donald, 1845). When Adam Arbuthnot died in 1850, he bequeathed his collections to the Provost, Magistrates and Town Council of Peterhead.

1585 The historic Ugie Salmon fishhouse at the mouth of the Ugie was built by the 4th Earl Marischal. This 400 year old salmon house is the oldest surviving building in Peterhead. It is also the oldest working premises in Scotland . �The Fish House� was built on the banks of the River Ugie in 1585 for George Keith, 5 th Earl Marischal, for keeping game and fish. Still standing, it has been used by salmon fishermen for over 100 years, and is now owned by Ugie Salmon Fishing's who "have mastered to perfection the arts of catching, preparing and smoking Scottish Salmon. The closely guarded skills and knowledge of our forefathers have been handed down from generation to generation

1818 saw the start of the building of the North Harbour after designs by Thomas Telford, who also did the Caledonian canal and the bridge over the Menai Straits .

1827 The Lighthouse at nearby Boddam was built by Robert Stevenson. Robert Stevenson was the grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson, better known for writing classics such as Treasure Island , Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Kidnapped.

. 1888 Peterhead prison was opened Scotland 's first and only convict prison. Until the opening of the prison, Scots convicts were transported to England to serve their sentences. The prison was served by a unique railway line, the only state owned passenger carrying railway in its day, unfortunately this no longer exists, today the old rail line is used by walkers who can follow the route all the way to Aberdeen . Initial excavations around the prison unearthed interesting findings for Granite was not the first stone to be quarried in this area. Just a few hundred metres away from Stirling Hill was the then undiscovered site of a vast flint working which men of the Neolithic age, some 4000 years ago, had worked for as long as 300 years, bringing forth flint which, until recent years, had been thought to have been imported to Scotland from England and Ireland, the deposit being unique in Scotland, there being no other land deposits of flint in the country.
That detail would have been very unlikely to have held any interest for the convicts who were to take stone from the Stirling Hill site, nor as they laboured to smash granite (with their choice of seven or fourteen pound hammers) would they have been grateful for the information that the stone which sent jarring vibrations up their arms to ache their muscles with every strike, had started existence as a molten layer 5 kilometres below the surface, some 407-11 million years ago.
An igneous rock, granite is one of the best wearing rocks man uses for major works. It blunts the hardest tempered steel chisels, so when shaped it will resist the ravages of climate and vandalism, remaining intact for many thousands of years. The stone of which Aberdeen is built.�

From 1888 the harbour facilities were greatly improved with the building of a series of huge breakwaters, the largest 900m in length, to create a vast "harbour of refuge" encompassing the whole of Peterhead Bay. The boom and bust in the whaling industry was mirrored in the herring fishery. At the peak of the herring boom in 1890, Peterhead's fleet numbered some 580 vessels. When the herring stocks began to dwindle, the fleet turned its attention to white fish and after the First World War several trains left the town each day carrying fish to southern markets. By 1987 Peterhead was Europe's largest white fish port, with over 400 boats landing nearly 120,000 tonnes at Europe's biggest fish market, measuring nearly 400m from end to end. Over the past years external economic circumstances have brought questions of confidence and image into sharp focus. The crisis in the fishing industry, downsizing of RAF Buchan and threats to Peterhead Prison have dented business confidence and brought insecurity to the community which seems quite ironic particularly because of the oil revenues sustained since the 1970's and Peterhead being an important base for serving the oil industry, but Peterhead still has a lot to offer.

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