RIVER DEE

Dee (Aberdeen)

Dee (Dumfries and Galloway)

Dee - Dyfrdwy (Welsh borders)

Dee (Yorkshire)

Rivers Dee and Don, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

This famous 'royal' river rises in the Cairngorm Mountains in Aberdeen, eastern Scotland (close to Ben Macdhui, 1309 m (4296 feet), and flows east for 145 kilometres (90 miles) to the coast of the North Sea and the city of Aberdeen. It is one of the country's most famous salmon fishing rivers.

The Dee follows a course that has been considerably altered by glacial erosion. The Dee and the Don rivers lie in deep glacial (U-shaped) valleys, scoured by ice in the last Ice Age.

The Don is not navigable because it flows through deep gorges and has a shallow estuary. By contrast, the Dee has a much deeper estuary and for this reason it has been developed as the harbour of Aberdeen. However, it too, is not navigable above the estuary.

The Royal Dee has been likened to the French River Loire because of the many royal houses and castles that line it (for example Crathes, Aboyne, Balmoral and Braemar). In some ways it can also be compared to New York's Middle Hudson with its famous grand houses. In each case, the rivers have been preserved from development by the fact that the lands to either side have been in the hands of landed gentry whose interests were to maintain the valley as private estates.

No such preservation was afforded to the more fertile soils of the Don, hence the local saying: 'The River Dee for fish and tree, the River Don for horn and corn".

The Upper Dee

The Upper Dee begins in the central Grampians, flowing from numerous headwaters down steep turbulent courses, cutting narrow glens that abound with rapids and waterfalls.

The edge of the Highland zone with its tough granites is marked by a widening of the valley as the limestone is relatively easy to erode. Here, at the rock boundary lie some of the most spectacular waterfalls, such as the Falls of Dess on the Dess Burn. The waterfall is at the junction, the gorge below it cut in limestone.

The Burn 0' Vat at Dinnet is another spectacular water feature, this time comprising a gorge that terminates in a giant pothole (the Vat) some 50 m (150 feet) deep. But the modest stream that flows in the gorge seems unlikely to have cut such a massive feature. Rather it is probably the work of tumultuous rivers flowing from the Highlands as glaciers melted at the end of the Ice Age. Thus the Vat may have changed little in the last several thousand years.

The Lower Dee

The Lower Dee below Arboyne is cut in hard granite so that the valley near Banchory is steep and narrow.

Close to the sea the Dee emerges at the coast after plunging down the rapids of Corbie Linn and Thunder Hole. Meanwhile, the Don plunges down across the coastal rocks to give the many rapids that characterise the stretch between Cothall and Woodside. Here power was taken for the linen, cotton and woollen mills as well as for a paper making factory.

Places on the Dee

Aberdeen

(population 202,000) is the third city of Scotland, after Edinburgh and Glasgow. It is the center of north eastern Scotland.

Aberdeen lies at the junction (confluence) of the Rivers Dee and Don. The estuary is exposed to the harsh storms of the North Sea, and for this reason it is protected by granite piers.

Aberdeen, known as the granite city because this gray stone is used on many public buildings and on many older houses, is the main shopping and business city for the whole of the north of Scotland. It also acts as the main connection with the Orkney and Shetland Islands.

The other main activities of the port are for fishing as a supply port for the important North Sea oil and gas industry. Many of the people who work on the oil and gas rigs have their homes in Aberdeen.

The income from the petroleum industry has provided much of the wealth for the city in modern times, but it has also forced up house prices and made buying houses difficult for those who earn less money. Aberdeen also has papermaking mills and makes some textiles. Aberdeen airport is located at nearby Dyce.

History of the city

Aberdeen (whose name may mean mouth of the Dee) is believed to have been founded by the Vikings in about the 8th century. In the 12th century it was settled by Normans and by people escaping from Europe and this is the time the textile industry was started. Flemish weavers made woollens and stockings.

The oldest settlement (Old Aberdeen, formerly called Seaton, which means town by the sea) was on the Don and it was here that the oldest cathedral, and later the two universities were founded.

New Aberdeen (on the Dee) grew up from the 12th century because of its better harbour. The earliest village of New Aberdeen was founded at the southern end of a ridge of gravel left at the end of the Ice Age. The Den Burn flows into the Dee estuary to the west of this dry ridge and so a good site for a village occurred close to a sheltered tidal creek. The muds of this creek were later dredged to make the main harbour of Aberdeen, while Aberdeen's second cathedral was built high on the ridge.

Industry came to the city with the construction of textile mills using the power from the Leuchar Burn, a tributary of the Dee that cuts a steep gorge on its way to the main river. More falls occur on the Dee itself to give the rapids of Corbie Linn and Thunder Hole.

For a thousand years they remained separate towns, even though the growth of the settlements meant that they had merged in practice. However, New Aberdeen became the larger site, due to its bustling harbour. The two settlements were only united officially as recently as 1891.

In Victorian times the main street, Union Street, was laid out as a symbol of the city's prosperity and success. In nearby Broad Street is Marischal College, part of Aberdeen University. Its granite front is thought to be among the world's best granite structures. Aberdeen commands the routeway along the north east coast of Scotland. For this reason it has been a trading center for hundreds of years.

The earliest bridge over the Dee was built in 1530. A bridge over the Don (the Brig o' Balgownie) was built as early as 1320.

The railway arrived in Aberdeen in 1850, connecting it with Edinburgh, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) to the south. Aberdeen University (a merging of two former universities) dates from 1860.

Aberdeen is on the sheltered east coast of northern Scotland and has a mild climate for the latitude. As a result it has grown as a tourist center. Aberdeen also has famous golf links, attracting sports people from around the world.

Also on the Dee

Balmoral castle , which is owned by the Queen. It lies about 80 kilometres (50 miles) west of Aberdeen in the Grampian Highlands.

The castle is not old. The site, on which there was a small castle, was bought by Prince Albert in 1852 and the castle was subsequently built of white granite. It was built in Victorian baronial style as a summer retreat for the Royal family. Nearby Abergeldie Castle lies just east of Balmoral. This is also a royal castle.

Royal Deeside is a popular tourist area, centering on Balmoral Castle. This lies at the head of the Deeside Railway.

Nearby Braemar is a climbing center. Braemar Castle is a 17th century turreted garrison castle used to provide a place for soldiers to live and be strategically placed in case of local uprisings. The festival called the Braemar Gathering is held on the first Saturday in September, a sporting and cultural event usually attended by members of the Royal Family.

Linn of Dee is a natural beauty spot where the Dee follows through a gorge. The bridge over the Linn (gorge) was opened by Queen Victoria on September 8th, 1857.

Cambus O'May Suspension Bridge. In Upper Deeside lies the white Victorian suspension bridge over the River Dee.

Ballater is a small granite-built Deeside town made famous by Queen Victoria. Its streets were laid out in a grid pattern at the end of the 18th century, so that houses could be built for the wealthy who wanted to drink the healing spa waters at nearby Pannanich Wells. When the Deeside Railway arrived in 1867 the town became even more popular as a resort. Ballater Station is the station used by the Royal Family when arriving and leaving Balmoral by train. Ballater has a Gala Week in August. This features the Ballater Highland Games.

River Dee/Dyfrydwy, Welsh Borders

Tributaries include the Conway/Conwy

The Dee at Bala Lake.

The Afon Dyfrdwy (which is called the River Dee in England) has its headwaters in the Cambrian mountains just to the east of Bala Lake. From this lake it flows eastward through Llangollen then south east to Chirk before making a sharp turn north and flowing to the east of Wrexham (Wrecsam) to reach the Irish Sea just north of Chester.

In geological terms the Dee is an extremely interesting river because its eastward course in Wales takes it across many kinds of hard and soft rocks. This is why, as it passes over hard rocks, its course becomes deep and narrow and even waterfalls occur, whereas as it crosses softer rocks the valley widens out.

No river could cut through such varied rocks in this way unless it had once flowed over a much more uniform sheet of rock that sloped east. In fact it is believed that the Dee once linked eastward to the River Trent and so flowed out to the North Sea!

How did everything change? The answer is that, over time, the rocks that once sloped east have been eroded away. As the rocks were stripped away, so other rocks were revealed below whose 'grain' was from north to south. So as the Dee cut down further, it had to adjust to crossing a wide variety of rocks as described above. Geographers call this superimposed drainage.

It is very difficult for rivers to flow across the grain of the country because it is very slow cutting through the hard rocks. This gives other rivers a chance to cut down even faster and alter the course of the Dee. If you look at the Afon Conwy on a map, you will see that it is a very short river, flowing north through Betws-y-Coed to the sea at Conwy.

If you study the headwaters into Snowdonia National Park, you will see a very curious pattern. All the headwaters flow east before turning to flow north. In fact all these headwaters once belonged to the Dee, but because the Conwy has a short route over a band of soft rocks to the sea, it has been able to lower its valley and extend its path farther and farther south until it has cut right through the headwaters of the Dee and captured them. This is one of the best examples of a geographical feature, called river capture, anywhere in Britain.

But there is even more capturing to come, for the lower Dee is, like the Conwy, a short river flowing north. In the past it, too, cut a path south to cut into the Dee at a time when the Dee once connected east to the Trent. This capture accounts for the sudden northward bend in the present River Dee.

In fact, the Dee abounds with interesting physical geography features. For example, the estuary of the Dee is, like the Mersey, unusually wide. The river did not cut this. It is a feature left over from when, during the Ice Age, the ice pushed ashore, then retreated, leaving more material on the promontory of the Wirral, than elsewhere.

Places on the Dee

Chester

Chester lies on high ground in a meander of the River Dee. The city is still enclosed by its old walls which date from the 14th century. These were not the first walls, however, for they merely replaced the Norman ones, which had replaced the Roman walls.

Traditionally the River Dee was crossed by two bridges at Chester - one with seven arches and the other a single span.

Protected inside the meander and the walls lies the old city. The four main streets meet at the market cross. Here lie some of the oldest and most unique shops in Britain. Known as the Rows, the shops contain galleries which occupy the front of the first floor of the buildings and are reached by stairs from the street. Many are black and white timber buildings dating from the 16th and 17th centuries.

The city has a cathedral, a barracks and a castle, all again contained within the meander.

The Dee used to be the port for the city, but over the centuries it became silted up and so reduced the shipping trade. No ships reach modern Chester.

Chester was founded by the Romans and called Deva (the camp on the Dee). It was they who chose the defensive site in the meander because they needed a place from which to attack the Welsh. They used the river as a harbour. This is the Rodee, now the site of the racecourse.

During the Middle Ages, the port was vital to the trade of Chester. It imported hides, linen from Ireland, wine from France and fruits and spices from Spain. It exported cheese, salt and candles.

Dee: Yorkshire Dales

The Yorkshire Dee flows west through the Yorkshire Dales National Park. Its source is near Wold Fell, from where it flows through Dent Dale to join the River Rawthey near Sedburgh.

The fells (hills) on either side of the Dee are made up of layers of rocks of varying hardness. The top layer is hard Millstone Grit. This forms the tableland top to Whernside, the highest fell on the southern side of Dent Dale.

Below this tough cap rock are thin layers of shale, sandstone and limestone called the Yoredale Beds, and below these again is massive gray mountain limestone. This sequence of rocks is unique to the High Pennines and gives the Dales their dramatically stepped valley sides.

The springs that begin on the Millstone Grit and the Yoredale Beds often disappear down gaps that have been dissolved in the limestone. These gaps are called swallow holes. The water then follows an underground route where the limestone has been dissolved away underground, only to reappear lower down the valley side.

The river can flow over the limestone if it is full of water. The top of the filled part of the limestone is called the water table. For much of its course, the River Dee flows directly on mountain limestone that is filled with water. Here the acid waters seeping from the peaty fell bogs have dissolved the limestone, opening out the cracks and leaving a rocky surface. Pebbles carried at times of flood have also drilled potholes in the limestone surface. Also, in places, the river has cut through some of the bands of limestone, giving small waterfalls along its course. These three features - etched bed, potholes and waterfalls - make the upper Dee one of the prettiest rivers in the Pennines.

The limestone blocks show clearly in the Dee near Dent. See how they have been etched by the acid waters flowing off the moors

As the river flows further down the dale, it flows no longer on hard rock, but on deposits in part left from the Ice Age, so that you can no longer see a rocky bed. Furthermore, the river begins to meander and a flood plain forms, making flat lands that were traditionally used as water meadows.

Places on the Dentdale Dee

The only settlement on the Dee is Dent, a historic and well preserved mountain village whose thick stone-built houses and narrow cobbled streets attract many tourists. It also has a memorial in granite to geologist Adam Sedgwick.