Sandy Hobbs | Dear Mr. Thoms # 36, 1994

In DMT 25 and 33, we noted that a number of cases where towns were said, like Rome, to be built on seven hills. One of the was Aberdeen, Scotland, for which we can now provide a recent text. In 1994, the city of Aberdeen has been commemorating the two hundred anniversary of thelaying out of its main street, Union Street. A publicity brochure, News 200, carries the following passage:

“St Katherine’s Hill is variously claimed as one of the three hills of Aberdeen (for the three towers on the City Arms) and the seven hills of the city making Aberdeen the equivalent of Rome”.

To Aberdeen, Bath, Glasgow, Lisbon , Plovdiv and Sheffield can be added Edinburgh. The AA Touring Guide to Britain (1979), pp 218-219 has as Tour 100, “The City on Seven Hills”: “Seven hilltops guarded by a massive castle carry Edinburgh, the Athens of the North”.

After the comparison with Athens, the authors presumably thought it better not to add a comparison with Rome. However, they do add something which casts some doubt on the “seven hills” image:

“Until 200 years ago the great centre of culture and learning was little more than a cluster of houses along the Royal Mile, a cobbled slope that follows a windy ridge from Castle Hill to the Palace of Holyrood.”