Boating pond caught on film through the years

The boating pond at Duthie Park in Aberdeen is sure to be a popular spot with children over the coming weeks during the school holidays.

Aberdonians of all ages have enjoyed frequenting the pond for more than a century, whether playing with model boats or getting out on the water themselves.

Join us as we take a step back in time to enjoy some archive photographs of summer boating fun in the sun.

The pond has attracted visitors since the park opened in 1883 and drew crowds in for model yacht regattas in the early years.

It proved so popular that in 1920 calls were made to make it bigger.

Aberdeen’s Links and Parks committee agreed to consider the plea from the

model boat and power yacht club which had 50 boats in its fleet.

There weren’t 50 boats on this September day in the photo from 1963, above right, but a crowd had gathered to watch although the children barely got a look in.

A scale replica of a Danish cutter majestically powered through the chilly waters at Duthie Park boating pond in

December 1970, left, as model maker Donald Smith tested his latest creation watched by young Ina Jack, 7.

Donald had crafted the 22-inch scale model of the vessel for an auction to raise funds for the RNLI the following spring.

Young friends Frank Walker, John Shand, Mark Wood and Rory Wood, top left, had to join forces to

blow their yacht into the wind when they spent their September in-service holiday off school at the boating pond in 1988.

Plenty of visitors took to the water of the boating pond on a sunny July day in 1990, including holidaying brothers Michael and Barry Nisbet, from Shetland, second from top at the right, who enjoyed a spot of kayaking.

MESSING AROUND WITH BOATS: Frank Walker, 8, John Shand, 11, Mark Wood, 4, and Rory Wood, 7, above, lend some wind power, and youngsters boating in 1988, top, and 1990.

Model boats sailing on the Duthie Park pond in 1900, left, and in the late summer of 1963.

Donald Smith with his model cutter in 1970.