Things you didn't know about... Aberdeen

Aberdeen has a penchant for the octagonal
Two of Aberdeen's most well-known buildings are at least partly octagonal. The Old Town House, dating from 1789 and recently restored, has an octagonal belfry; the other eight-sided building is mysteriously called the Roundhouse...

An unusual emblem
Aberdeen's emblem is the leopard. No one is quite sure why.

Fenella Paton set up shop here
Fenella Paton was one of the early pioneers of birth control clinics. She weathered fierce criticism to set up one of Britain's first such clinics in Aberdeen in 1926.

Call me a softie?
In Aberdeen-speak, a "softie" is a soft bap containing cheese, egg, bacon and chips.

The last Scottish team to win a European trophy
As the people of Aberdeen will have no trouble remembering, you have to go back to 1983 to find the last Scottish team to win a European trophy. That was the year that Aberdeen FC (coached by Alex Ferguson) won the Cup Winners' Cup on a rainy night in Gothenburg.

The last pirates
The last prosecution for piracy in the UK took place in 1971 when the crew of an Aberdeen fishing vessel were accused of taking control of the trawler by force.

An education for a poet
Lord Byron was educated in Aberdeen, where his family had moved to avoid their creditors.

It's a town full of loons
Don't take it personally if someone calls you a "loon" in Aberdeen. In Aberdeen dialect, a "loon" is a male person from Aberdeen.

Millionaires galore
It may be hard to believe, but the postcode AB15, which covers the Aberdeen districts of Blacktop, Kingswells and Fairley, has the second largest number of millionaires in Britain. (The largest is EH4, in Edinburgh, since you ask).

Famous people from Aberdeen
Aberdeen is the birthplace of two of the more up-front women musicians of the last two decades: Annie Lennox and Evelyn Glennie. Comic and former doctor Graeme Garden also hails from Aberdeen.

Aberdeen, the true flower of Scotland
Two million roses, eleven million daffodils, three million crocuses—Aberdeen has won Britain in Bloom so many times that it's been banned from the competition to give other cities a chance. Or so they say!