Peterhead (listenⓘ; Scottish Gaelic: Ceann Phàdraig,[3] Scots: Peterheid listenⓘ)[4] is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

They also found some stone tools dating to the Mesolithic and early Neolithic which indicated that people have been living in the Peterhead area for over five thousand years.

[7] Prior to the Reformation, the land on which the town stands, together with a sizeable amount of adjoining country, belonged to Deer Abbey.

[8] The twelve original feuars occupied land along Seagate between the pier of Port Henry, to the north, and the Quinzie (Queenie) to the south.

The Queenie was a causeway of boulders, covered only by spring tides, which linked the islands of Keith Inch and Greenhill to the mainland.

[8] On 22 December 1715, James Francis Edward Stuart, Prince of Wales, arrived in Peterhead from Dunkirk and stayed "in an ancient house in Longate", where he was visited by the Earl Marischal.

The Marischal's last Baron Baillie, Thomas Arbuthnot, put the town on alert for war by summoning able-bodied men and their weapons.

[12] The estate of the Earl Marischal was forfeited in 1716, sold to York Buildings Company,[10] then to the governors of Merchant Maiden Hospital, Edinburgh, in 1726.

[8] In 1728, the diocese of Aberdeen reported that Peterhead was "about 230 families; the people are sober and courteous, and agree well amongst themselves, which has now become a rare character.

[14] Meanwhile, the enclosed lands of South Bay were being developed into "the beautifully homogeneous district of elegant houses for the accommodation of strangers and sea captains, much of which still survives".

The same year, Peterhead was made a head port, its limits extending southward to the mouth of the River Ythan and westward to Powk Burn.

The present harbour, now a Category B listed structure,[11] has two massive breakwaters, enclosing an area of approximately 300 acres (120 ha) in Peterhead Bay.

[18] During World War II, Peterhead was bombed 28 times by Nazi Germany bombers, ranking it as the second-most-bombed location in Britain, after London.

[19]) A new phase of growth was initiated in the 1970s with Peterhead becoming a major oil-industry service centre, and the completion of the nearby St Fergus gas terminal.

From the 1990s onward, the town has suffered from several high-profile company closures and is facing a number of pressures, including Common Fisheries Policy reforms.

However, it retains a relatively diverse economy, including food processing, textiles, service industries and, still importantly, fishing.

)[20] The Peterhead Port Authority plans to extend the northern breakwater as a stimulus to the town's economic development.

According to a 2019 UK sea fisheries statistical survey, Peterhead Port's catch size for the year was 132,000 tonnes.

[28] There are 22 listed buildings on Broad Street, including: Peterhead is the largest settlement in Buchan, a committee area of Aberdeenshire.

According to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, the town centre (specifically a part of the harbour area) received the lowest ranking (1 out of 10) for four of the seven topics: employment, education/skills, housing and crime.

The school has pupils coming from surrounding villages such as Boddam, Cruden Bay, Hatton, Inverugie, Rora, St Fergus and Crimond.

The academy's motto is Domus Super Petram Aedificata, meaning "A House Built on a Rock" – a reference to the parable in Matthew 7:24-27.

A number of projects are planned under the Peterhead Development Partnership and Rediscover Peterhead Business Improvement District initiatives, including tourism strategy development, enhancing existing attractions, improvements to the town's physical attractiveness, and increased marketing and promotion.

[39] The Peterhead Trail website was launched in early 2021, but the enterprise had erected 21 story boards around the town for a year or two beforehand.

[40] The green route travels west and south along the bay, taking in The Links, St Peter's Churchyard, the Scottish Maritime Academy, the Reform Tower and the Prison Museum.

[41] Peterhead Golf Club, reputedly the 18th-oldest in the world, sits on the banks of the River Ugie at its estuary with the North Sea, just over a mile to the north-west of the town.

Today, Peterhead is contained largely inside the A90, which runs along the western periphery of the town and was built through the area in the late 1980s.

[43] Out-of-town buses service Stirling Village (60, X60, 81, 82A, 82S and 747), Longhaven (60, X60, 61, 63 and 747), Hatton (60, X60, 61, X61 and 747), Ellon (60, X60, 61, X61 and 747), Cruden Bay (61, X61, 63 and 747), Newburgh (61, X61 and 63), Balmedie (61 and X61), Aberdeen (60, X60, 61, X61 and 63), Downiehills (66 and 66A), Longside (66 and 66A), Mintlaw (66 and 66A), Old Deer (66 and 66A), Stuartfield (66 and 66A), Maud (66 and 66A), St Fergus (69, 69A and X69), Kirktown (69 and 69A), Crimond (69, 69A and X69), Inverallochy (X69),[44] Lonmay (69), Fraserburgh (69, 69A and X69), St Combs (69A and X69), Cairnbulg (69A), Boddam (81, 82A and 82S), Foveran (747), Belhelvie (747), Dyce (747) and Aberdeen Airport (747).

[46] Peterhead is further from a railway station (at 32 miles or 51 km from Aberdeen) than any other town of its size in Great Britain.

The start of reconstruction of the Borders Railway to Galashiels (early 2013) has begun a local political debate into the possibility of reopening the line from Aberdeen to Fraserburgh and Peterhead.