Peterhead, a seaport and burgh of barony of Buchan, Aberdeenshire, on a peninsula, 32 miles by road, but 44 by a branch-line (1862), NNE. of Aberdeen. Founded in 1593, it is somewhat irregular in plan, but clean and largely built of the celebrated 'Peterhead granite,' whose reddish variety is so much used for monumental purposes. The Keiths, Earls Marischal, were superiors of the place till the rebellion of 1715, when the Old Pretender landed here, and after which their forfeited estates were purchased by the Edinburgh Merchant Maiden Hospital, to whose governors many improvements are owing. Of Marshal Keith (q.v.) a bronze statue was presented to the town in 1869 by King William of Prussia; and the market-cross, a granite Tuscan pillar (1833), bears the arms of the Earls Marischal. The public buildings include the town-hall (1788), with a spire 125 feet high; the parish church (1803), with one of 118 feet; the free library and museum (1891); the academy (1846); and convict-prison (1889). Industries are woollen manufacture, boat-building, and granite-polishing. Peterhead was made a head-port in 1838. From 1788 it gradually became the chief British seat of the seal and whale fisheries, until in 1852 it sent out 30 ships; but since then there has been a great decline. At present Peterhead is chiefly important for its great herring-fishery, which employs upwards of 500 boats, and which during the herring season brings some 5000 persons to the place. The south harbour was commenced in 1773, and the north harbour in 1818, a canal being formed between them in 1850; whilst a new harbour was formed and the south harbour deepened under Acts of 1873 and 1876. Their three basins, hewn out of the solid rock, together cover about 22 acres, and have cost £300,000; but all three are as nothing compared with the great harbour of refuge, the works for which, designed by Sir John Coode, were commenced in 1886, and are to be completed in 1921 at a cost of £746,000. In the neighbourhood are the ruins of Inverugie, Ravenscraig, and Boddam castles, all strongholds of different branches of the Keiths; Buchan Ness, the most easterly point of Scotland, with a lighthouse (1827); and the Bullers of Buchan (q.v.). Since 1833 Peterhead has united with Elgin, &c. to return one member to parliament. Pop. (1801) 3264; (1851) 7298; (1881) 10,922; (1891) 12,226.
See Peter Buchan's Annals of Peterhead (1819), besides works by W. Laing (1793) and Arbuthnot (1815).