ABERDEENSHIRE

The county town of Aberdeen, the Granite City and one of the most prosperous area in the UK.

Although most of the new wealth is oil-related, there has always been a prosperous heart to Aberdeenshire, containing as it does some excellent arable and mixed agricultural land.

One third of this county is owned by just a dozen estates. Trusts and Forbes Double-Barrelled-Nitwits abound. The largest estate is three times as large as Scotland's smallest county, Clackmananshire.