Every place has a History but it is the people and events within the local history that provides its true Heritage.

Probably the first family of note in the area was the Comyn family, this family were the original medieval earls of Buchan and were descended from King Charlemagne. However, Robert the Bruce eventually drove the Comyn family out of their Buchan heartland thus enabling the establishment of the Keith family as being the dominant local family for the next 300 hundred years.

The most famous of the Keith's was Field Marshal James Keith of Inverugie, whose statue stands in the town at the top of Broad Street. This statue was directly gifted to Peterhead by William 1, the King of Prussia in recognition of the Field Marshal's loyalty to the Prussian sovereign at several major European battles during the l7th century.

This part of Scotland has always had strong historic Jacobite connections and 'The Old Chevalier', father of Prince Charles Edward Stuart (otherwise known as 'Bonnie Prince Charlie) landed in Peterhead in 1715 during his attempt to regain the British crown. After the battle of Sherriffmuir in 1715 while stringent punishments were then being imposed on the supporters of James Edward Stuart James Keith, and his brother, left the country for Europe, many other members of the Keith Clan also fled to Ireland and America.

The remains of no less than three of the Keith Castles of the period can still be found outside of Peterhead providing a clear indication on the dominance of this family over the local people. The sparse remains of Boddam Castle stand starkly overhanging the clifftops to the south of the town. Inverugie Castle can be found in the village of Inverugie on the north side of the town and Ravenscraig Castle can be found nestling under dense trees alongside the River Ugie and just up stream from Inverugie Castle.

Much has been written about the Keith Clan and the family heritage web site for Peterhead contains a listing for a number of good sources.

Towards the end of the 18th C. Peterhead became a major base for the whaling and sealing fleet. A hazardous activity, these brave crews in quite small ships, battled with the treacherous weather across the vast extent of the North Atlantic and the Arctic Seas around Greenland and through across the northern limits of Canada. Many of the captains and crew of these vessels were local men and it is good to know that the memory of these men five on in places named after them, or their ships, such as Milne Land, Gray Straight, Eclipse Harbour or Penny Land.

Between 1778 and 1878, Peterhead whalers caught no less that 4169 whales and 1,593,903 seals, amounting to more than 60,000 tons.

Peterhead's Graving Dock (designed by Thomas Stevenson) was built in 1855 to serve the whaling fleet. Also at this time there were a number of ship construction yards in the town and more than 125 ships were actually built here, ships that were soundly constructed to withstand the severe weather of the northern ice fields and also went on to travel the world. The most famous of the Peterhead whaling fleet being the Eclipse (formerly under the captaincy of Capt David Gray), she was eventually sold to Russia and although she sank in 1927 she was raised in 1929 and carried on as a Russian research ship until she was finally destroyed in a bombing raid at Archangel in 1941.

During this time Peterhead also became famed as a spa town and the rich and nobility from all over Great Britain came to benefit from the waters. A journey that could be long arduous and expensive for the coach fare from London to Aberdeen in the early 19th C. cost the equivalent of £8600 at today's values and took 3 days to cover the distance.

Of course this dramatic growth in industry also led to a growth in port facilities and internationally renowned engineers such as John Smeaton, Robert Stephenson, Thomas Glover, Thomas Telford and Thomas Brunton all had an input to the development and growth of the town.

In 1850, Captain Penny, commanded the search for the doomed Franklin vessels, the Erebus and the Terror. Captain Penny rediscovered the entrance to the Cumberland Sound (Baffin Island) that had been lost for more than 200 years.

In 1880 Arthur Conan Doyle, the author who created Sherlock Holmes, sailed as the ship's surgeon on the 'Hope', one of Captain Gray's whaling vessels. Several of Conan Doyle's earlier books (The Firm of Girdlestone, The Captain of the "Pole-Star" and The Gully of Bluemansdyke) are all based on his Peterhead based whaling experiences.

The Windward, under the captaincy of Peterhead's Captain Brown brought home the Norwegian trans-polar explorer Dr. Nansen from his fated 1896 expedition.

The artist, and writer, David Cardno (1853-1938) was born in Peterhead. He went on to spend much of his life on Baffin Island (now part of the Canadian Territory of Nunavut) managing various whaling stations. His isolation was such that he never heard that Britain and Germany were at war until 19 16!

Charles 'Bertie' Forbes (1880-1954) started work as a junior reporter on the Peterhead newspaper, 'The Sentinal' befbre going on make his millions after founding the Forbes magazine empire in the USA.

Largely built by the convicts themselves, Peterhead's Convict Prison dates from 1886. The prisoners also built, and were the sole users of the most exclusive railway in the country. The line ran only between the Stirling Hill granite quarry and the harbour via the prison with the convicts travelling in windowless carriages overseen by armed guards.

By 1882, with the increasing demise of the whaling industry, there were already nearly 900 herring boats in the Peterhead fleet. The largest annual herring catch was actually in 1907 when 291,713 cran of herring (approx 15,000 tons) were landed.

The two World Wars saw two major low] events affecting our heritage. During the First World War the most northerly Royal Naval Air Station was constructed at Lenabo 5 miles west of Peterhead, where a variety of military dirigibles were tested. Now heavily wooded, little remains to be seen on the ground of this important historical site. The Second World War saw the construction of Peterhead's Longside Airfield. Built for the RAF in 1941 it was disbanded in 1945. At its busiest time there were in excess of 2000 personnel stationed there, serving a large number of RAF, and up to four Fleet Air Arm squadrons. Amongst the nations represented were Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders. Poles, Czechoslovaks, Belgians, and Americans.

Peterhead's Arbuthnot Museum in St Peter Street features various displays on our local history and its heritage and is named after Adam Arbuthnot (17731850) from the prominent local land-owning and merchant family.