Publication Account

Date 1997

Event ID 1019055

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1019055

In 1593, George Keith, Earl Marischal, founded the University of Marischal College, perhaps in reaction to lack of change in King's College, Old Aberdeen, and in order to operate a new reformed syllabus at New Aberdeen. The college was endowed with revenues from the Dominican and Carmelite properties, and was housed in the former Franciscan Friary on the east side of Broad Street. The buildings were altered on several occasions until 1836-44 when old buildings were removed to form the eastern side of the present quadrangle, designed by Archibald Simpson. The existing west side was constructed between 1893 and 1906, to designs by A Marshall Mackenzie, and necessitated the removal of the old Greyfriars Church (see above). The rebuilding provided a new examination hall, as well as an extension to the central tower. The work left Marischal College the second largest granite building in the world (after the Escorial in Madrid), and the granite was used in ways that previously had not been thought possible. The Marischal College remained an independent university until 1860, when it united with King's College, Old Aberdeen.

Information from ‘Historic Aberdeen: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1997).