Surrounded on two sides by 100 miles of unspoilt coastline and on the third by the 4,000-foot Cairngorms, Aberdeenshire offers mountain and moor, salmon-stocked rivers, granite towns, sturdy slate-roofed villages and local folk sure of their own special culture - and all ready with a genuine welcome.

From the Cairngorms down across the rolling farmland, this is a place cut by delightful valleys and winding rivers - the Dee, Don, Deveron, Ugie and Ythan.

Aberdeenshire is in many ways the heartland of what people expect Scotland to be - malt whisky, heather-clad moors, castle at every corner, Highland Games and unpretentious people with very individual speech and identity.

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