Qualla: River Don, Aberdeenshire

River Don, Aberdeenshire: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Ptolemy of Alexandria, writing in the 2nd century from a city half a continent away, knew this river by name. He called it Devona, the goddess. The water that rose from a peat flat beneath Druim na Feithe in the Grampians was sacred to someone, long enough ago that a Greek cartographer would record the name without needing to explain it. Eighteen centuries later that same river still spills into the North Sea just north of Old Aberdeen, having passed castles, Roman camps, and the suburban kitchens of a modern city on its way down from the hills.

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River Don, Aberdeenshire: Where Three Rivers Choose Their Lives

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On the slopes of Brown Cow Hill, water makes a decision. Rain that falls on the northern face will join the Don and follow it east through Aberdeenshire to the cold North Sea. Rain on the western face will tip into the River Spey, slip down through Speyside whisky country, and re...

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River Don, Aberdeenshire: Castles, Cairns and the Bones of Empire

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Don's valley is a corridor of memory. Above Cock Bridge stands Corgarff Castle, a white-harled tower that has watched the upper Strath since the sixteenth century. Downstream, near Kintore, the river slips past the Deers Den Roman Camp - earthworks left by legions marching no...

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River Don, Aberdeenshire: Water That Will Not Be Tame

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In January 2016, after the Great Britain and Ireland floods, the Don rose to levels nobody alive had seen. At Haughton near Inverurie, the water reached 5.6 metres - half a metre higher than the November 2002 flood that had set the previous record. At Parkhill the river climbed t...

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River Don, Aberdeenshire: Salmon, Trout and a Hydro Scheme

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

For all its temper, the Don is now mostly known for what swims in it. Salmon and sea trout run up from the estuary each year, drawing fishers to Strathdon and the middle reaches. The river is one of the celebrated rods of north-east Scotland - smaller and shallower than the Spey,...

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