Aberdeen

Aberdeen lies between the mouths of the Dee and the Don on the North Sea. David I made it a royal burgh, and in 1214 its burgesses received a charter from Alexander II granting them the sole right to form a guild. Under English rule during the Wars of Independence it saw Robert the Bruce besiege its castle, destroy it in 1308 and execute the garrison; Edward III burned the town in 1336, and it was rebuilt larger. Its arms show three silver towers on red, for the castle, the gate and the church on its three hills, and its motto, Bon Accord, is said to come from a password of Bruce's men.

The burgh council's registers survive from 1398 and are exceptional for their length and continuity. Provost Robert Davidson led three dozen burgesses to the Battle of Harlaw in 1411 against the Lord of the Isles' army, and was killed there. Old Aberdeen became a separate burgh in 1489, near St Machar's Cathedral, and in 1495 Bishop William Elphinstone founded King's College there. Royalist troops plundered the city in 1644, and plague killed 8.5 per cent of its people in 1647–48.