River Dee, Aberdeenshire

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River Dee
The River Dee near Braemar.
Origin	Wells of Dee, Cairngorms
Mouth	Aberdeen
Basin countries	Scotland
Length	90 miles (140 km)
Avg. discharge	m³/s
Basin area	2100 km²

The River Dee is a river in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It rises in the Cairngorms and flows through Royal Deeside to reach the North Sea at Aberdeen.

1 Course
2 Natural History
3 Royal Deeside
4 Gallery
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Course

The River Dee rises at 4000ft on the plateau of Braeriach, the highest source of any major river in the British Isles. Water emerges in a number of pools like the one in the picture below and flows across the plateau to the cliff edge, then plunges into An Garbh Choire. The young Dee joins a tributary from the Pools of Dee in the Lairig Ghru and passes between Ben Macdui and Cairn Toul. The river flows over falls in the Chest of Dee on its way to White Bridge, the confluence of the Geldie Burn.

At Linn of Dee the river passes through a 300m natural rock gorge. Between there and Braemar, Lui Water (formed by Luibeg and Derry Burns) and Quoich Water join the growing River Dee. Clunie Water and Callater Burn join together and flow into the Dee at Braemar.

Through Royal Deeside, the river passes the settlements of Braemar, Ballater, Aboyne and Banchory. The Rivers Muick and Gairn join the Dee at Ballater. The Water of Tanar flows through Glen Tanar before joining the Dee at Aboyne. The Water of Feugh joins the River Dee at Banchory.

Before reaching the North Sea, the River Dee passes through Aberdeen harbour. An artificial channel was constructed in 1872 to improve the harbour, which is the largest marine centre in Europe servicing the offshore oil and gas industry.

Footdee ("Fittie") is an old fishing village at the east end of Aberdeen harbour.

The A93 road runs along its strath from Braemar to Aberdeen.

[edit] Natural History

The Dee is important for nature conservation and the area has many designated sites. The upper catchment is within the Cairngorms National Nature Reserve and (since 2003) Cairngorms National Park. Much of the semi-natural Caledonian pine woods in Scotland are within the Dee catchment. The area contains nationally rare examples of pinewoods, birchwoods and heather moors with associated wildlife. On the valley floor there are alderwoods, mixed broadleaved woods, and meadow grasslands. Otter, Water Vole and freshwater mussel are among the animal species under threat.

The Dee is a popular salmon river, having a succession of varied pools, intersected by sharp rapids.

[edit] Royal Deeside

The area around Braemar and Ballater is known as Royal Deeside, due to the fact that since the reign of Queen Victoria, the British Royal Family have spent their summers here at Balmoral Castle. Every year they attend the Braemar Highland Games and other local events. Birkhall, previously owned by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother is now the favourite retreat of Prince Charles.