Westhill

Scotland's postwar population increased rapidly and its existing housing stock was in poor condition, or in the wrong place as new industries replaced the old. The mid-to-late 20th century was an era of ambitious but not entirely successful house building, best known being the "New Towns" of Livingston, Glenrothes, Cumbernauld, East Kilbride and Irvine. There were also substantial developments expanding existing cities, and a few greenfield settlements that didn't follow the pattern of the New Towns - and Westhill is one of these.

The name "Westhill" was conjured up in 1859 when a landowner combined the farms and names of Wester Kinmundy and Blackhills. It remained farmland until 1968 when a local entrepreneur developed it, nicely timed to catch the Aberdeen oil boom. It grew rapidly as a commuter town and as a light-industrial park for any business that didn't care to pay Aberdeen's spiralling land prices and taxes. In the 1980s the city council eyed this upstart town and tried to incorporate it within Aberdeen, but was rebuffed sharply enough that it hasn't tried again. The local oil and gas industries are in their sunset years as North Sea reserves become harder to reach and carbon-based fuels are seen as harmful. Nevertheless it's still a major player in Westhill, for instance in sub-sea ROV and robot technology to replace human divers. And any commuter or business looking for a cheap alternative to the city is ten years too late, as prices within Westhill rocketed even before the re-aligned A90 improved its transport.

1 Aberdeen Airport (ABZ IATA) is 6 miles north of Westhill. By public transport you need to go into city centre and out again, but a taxi will scoot along the A90 in ten minutes.

Aberdeen is the nearest railway station, with hourly services from Dundee which variously start from Edinburgh, Glasgow or London. The city also has trains every couple of hours from Inverness, ferries from Orkney and Shetland, and inter-city buses.

Road access to Westhill was greatly improved in 2019 by the A90 Aberdeen bypass, officially the Western Peripheral Route. This makes a great loop west of the city to pass within a mile of Westhill, so coming from south or north, follow A90, which is mostly fast dual-carriageway. The last mile is on A944, which runs from Aberdeen to Westhill then away out cross-country to Rhynie, which is almost a byword for "nowhere in particular".

By bus the operator is Stagecoach North Scotland. All buses start from Aberdeen Union Square, next to the railway station and ferry port.

- Bus 4 / 5 / 6 / 6a to Kingswells P&R and Westhill (45 min), M-Sa every 20 min and Sunday every 30 min. Bus 14 also runs as far as the P&R.

- Night bus N3 runs F Sa at midnight, 1:30AM and 2:45AM.

- Bus 218 to Kingswells P&R and Alford four times M-Sa.

Buses loop around Westhill Drive, Old Skene Rd, Wellgrove Rd and Straik Rd, there's no bus station