ABSTRACT
Peterhead has a distinct and isolated physical existence at the end of a difficult road at the eastern-most extremity of mainland Scotland. It gives the appearance of being a fishing community, an idea that is locally cultivated by Peterheadians. The inhabitants underline their feeling of belonging to this community by reference to a common history and to a recent past when the fortunes of everyone depended upon the fishing industry. Peterheadians refer to the qualities of independence and individualism derived from fishing and characteristic of the whole population. Peterhead began as a feudal property and became an object of speculation by ‘robber merchants’. Social differentiation and social placement is something at which Peterheadians are expert, and which was institutionalised in council house allocation to the extent of providing ‘superior houses for superior people’.
