Stonehaven Open Air Swimming Pool
Local highlightA 1934 seawater pool on the Stonehaven seafront, 50 metres long, Art Deco and heated to about 29°C for the summer
Open to visitorsopen late May to early September, pay at the pool, midnight swims booked online — check times
The open-air pool at Stonehaven opened in June 1934, in Queen Elizabeth Park on the seafront. The architect was R Gall of the firm Gregory and Gall, and when Historic Environment Scotland listed the pool Category B in 2005 it called it the only Art Deco 50-metre saltwater open-air pool in the UK. The basin is 50 metres by 18 and filled with seawater heated to about 29°C, so a swim here is warm and salty rather than a North Sea shock.
In the mid-1990s the pool was threatened with closure, and local people set up the Friends of Stonehaven Open Air Pool to save it. The Friends still help Live Life Aberdeenshire run the pool for the council. The summer season starts on the last Saturday in May and runs to early September, and you pay at the pool. On Wednesday nights in high summer there are midnight swims from 10pm, best booked online. There is a cold-water season through the winter too. Stonehaven station is just over 1km west, and Dunnottar Castle, the clifftop ruin south of the town, is a walk along the coast.
