Aberdeen Harbour has featured in a new BBC documentary series called Our Lives, which focuses on the workings of a port that dates all the way back to 1136.
Despite being one of Britain’s oldest businesses and busiest ports, Aberdeen Harbour is currently in the midst of a multi-million pound extension.
The ongoing work has not stopped it from functioning around the clock though, with the documentary taking a peak behind the curtain at a business which provides services including: marine support for the offshore energy industry. decommissioning, commercial import and export RoRo lifeline freight and ferry services to the Northern Isles.
The port turns over around £38 million per year while contributing approximately £1.5 billion to the national economy, and having gained "Trust Port" status, it essentially functions as a social enterprise, with all profits reinvested back into the business, hence the new extension.
Given that the port is approaching its 1,000th birthday in the not too distant future, the focus on legacy and sustainability is understandable.
In her recent contribution to The Parliamentary Review, Aberdeen Harbour Board chief executive Michelle Handforth explained the reasoning behind the development documented in Our Lives and discussed how it will impact future generations.
"Building anything in water is difficult, and a major construction project in the North Sea has proved predictably unpredictable, but there is real momentum behind the project now and the resulting facilities will be game-changing," she wrote.
"The 1,400 metres of deep-water quays, and 125,000 square metres of heavy-lift laydown area, would raise another gasp of astonishment not only from King David, but doubtless too from the now-legendary engineers that helped develop Aberdeen Harbour in its past – such as John Smeaton and Thomas Telford. While our ambitions to be the greenest port in the country may have only perplexed these great figures in history, they make incredible sense now to all that have the vision to see the real potential of the new combined port in contributing to local, national and industry net-zero targets
"As a Trust Port, however, it is the impact this expansion will have on the lives of current and future generations that has shaped our vision of the port’s future. Our ultimate purpose is to create prosperity for generations to come, and we will only do this by being open to a world of possibilities. We can only imagine what the port will look like in another 900 years’ time. For now, though, we are firmly focussed on maximising the potential from this latest chapter in Aberdeen Harbour’s exceptional history."
