Aberdeen - Marischal College

On one side of Aberdeen's Broad Street stands the Marischal College. Founded in 1593 by George Keith, the fifth Earl Marischal of Dunnottar, it is the second-largest granite building in the world after Spain's El Escorial. Keith sought a Protestant counterbalance to the Catholic King's College in Old Aberdeen. Work started on the present college in 1837 with the 235ft/72m Mitchell Tower. Archibald Simpson supplied the plans for the huge four-winged edifice but the Neo-gothic west front was designed by A. Marshall MacKenzie and was built between 1890 and 1906. The Marischal Museum in the college possesses a superb anthropological collection, including exhibits from Egypt, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Hawaii and Tibet. However, the main emphasis in the museum is on the northeast of Scotland.