Holiday Cottages In Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire has around 290 self-catering cottages on selfcatering.co.uk, from granite houses on Royal Deeside to fishing cottages on the Moray Firth coast. The county wraps Aberdeen on three sides, climbing from a Blue Flag shore to the eastern Cairngorms, and more than 200 of those cottages take dogs while over 40 have a hot tub.

Best areas and towns in Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire splits into two holiday landscapes: the wooded valley of Royal Deeside running west into the hills, and the working coast that curves north and east along the Moray Firth and the North Sea. The best-known bases sit along the River Dee, with a second cluster of fishing towns and villages on the coast.

• Ballater: a tidy Deeside village on the River Dee, just east of the Cairngorms and the closest town to Balmoral
• Braemar: a Highland village high on upper Deeside, home of the famous Gathering and a gateway to the hills
• Aboyne and Dinnet: green Deeside settlements on the edge of the Highlands, handy for walking and the river
• Banchory, Inchmarlo and Glenkindie: lower Deeside and Donside bases among the castles and farmland
• Banff and Whitehills: a Georgian town and a small fishing village facing each other on the Moray Firth
• Gardenstown: a steep cliff-foot fishing village east of Banff, tucked under the brae
• Fraserburgh and nearby Inverallochy: the big herring port at the county's north-east tip, with a long sandy beach
• Collieston: a former smuggling village on the North Sea coast south of Peterhead
• Alford, Huntly and Coldstone: inland Donside and Strathbogie towns and villages among the farms and castles

Aberdeen itself is a separate city, so most cottages here lie out in the valleys and along the coast rather than in town.

The Aberdeenshire coast and its beaches

Aberdeenshire has a long, varied coast: cliffs and fishing harbours on the Moray Firth, then a run of dune-backed sand down the North Sea side. Several beaches held a Blue Flag in 2025, among them Fraserburgh Beach and the Waters of Philorth beside it, Cruden Bay, Collieston, Inverboyndie near Banff and Balmedie Country Park, while at Stonehaven both Billow Ness and Cowie beaches and the Pathhead Sands at St Cyrus carried the flag too. The harbour at Stonehaven is a sheltered curve of fishing boats below the town, and the cliffs to the south are crowned by one of Scotland's great fortress ruins. North of Aberdeen the sands run almost unbroken from Balmedie to the dunes of Forvie, popular with walkers, surfers and seal-watchers.

Things to do in Aberdeenshire

The county is castle country. Dunnottar Castle stands on a sheer headland south of Stonehaven, one of the most photographed ruins in the land, while Balmoral Castle near Ballater is the royal family's Highland home and opens its grounds in season. The National Trust for Scotland looks after Crathes Castle near Banchory, with its painted ceilings and yew gardens, and Castle Fraser out towards Inverurie, both stops on the regional Castle Trail. On the coast, gaunt Slains Castle above the cliffs near Peterhead is said to have inspired Dracula, and the Peterhead Prison Museum tells a grittier story inside the old jail. Walkers head for the eastern Cairngorms above Braemar, where the high tops and the pinewoods of Deeside draw hillgoers all year.

When to visit Aberdeenshire

Summer brings the warmest, longest days, with the coast at its best for beaches and the Deeside hills clear for walking, and the Braemar Gathering fills the first Saturday of September. Late spring and early autumn are quieter and good value, with the rivers running and the castle grounds in leaf. Winter is cold and can bring snow to the Cairngorms, which suits skiers and anyone after log fires and short bracing days on the shore. The east coast stays drier than the west of Scotland for much of the year.

Dog-friendly and hot-tub cottages in Aberdeenshire

More than 200 of the cottages in Aberdeenshire take dogs, and more than 40 have a hot tub. Browse the places that take dogs or places with a hot tub to narrow your search.

Getting to Aberdeenshire

Aberdeenshire sits in the north-east of Scotland, with Aberdeen at its heart roughly two and a half hours north of Edinburgh by road. The A90 is the main route up the coast, with the A93 running west into Deeside towards Braemar. Trains reach Aberdeen from Edinburgh and Glasgow in around two and a half hours, with onward connections, and Aberdeen International Airport, just north of the city, serves UK and European routes as well as the North Sea helicopter traffic.

Useful links

• VisitAberdeenshire
• Aberdeenshire Council
• Cairngorms National Park
• National Trust for Scotland

Aberdeenshire is a council area in the north-east of Scotland, wrapped around the city of Aberdeen, which forms a separate council area at its centre. It reaches from the North Sea and the Moray Firth in the east and north to the high tops of the Cairngorms in the west, and takes in the historic districts of Mar, Formartine, Buchan, Garioch and the Mearns. It is a large and largely rural county of farmland, forest, river valley and coast.

The land rises steadily inland. The valley of the River Dee, known as Royal Deeside since Queen Victoria built Balmoral there, runs west from the coast deep into the mountains, with Donside and the valley of the Don to the north. Beyond the farms and the wooded straths lie the eastern Cairngorms, the highest and coldest ground in Britain, while the coast itself swings from the cliffs and fishing harbours of the Moray Firth round to the long dune-backed sands of the North Sea. The county is famous for its castles, hundreds of them, from sheer-sided Dunnottar to the great houses of the Castle Trail.

Its history is written in stone. Pictish symbol stones and recumbent stone circles stand among the fields, granite built its towns and lighthouses, and herring once filled the harbours at Fraserburgh and Peterhead, still among the busiest fishing ports in Europe. Today farming, fishing, tourism and the energy industry centred on Aberdeen shape an area that balances a hard-working coast with some of the grandest scenery in the country.