Marischal College, Aberdeen

Today I had a couple of meetings in Aberdeen and managed to blip Marischal College, which is the world's 2nd largest granite building.

Formerly the seat of the ancient Marischal College and University of Aberdeen founded in 1593, the building was retained by the unified University of Aberdeen following its creation in 1860 by the merger of Marischal College and King's College, a university founded in 1495 in Old Aberdeen to the north of the modern Aberdeen city centre. The buildings of Marischal College continued to be used for general university purposes until recent times and were significantly rebuilt and expanded upon throughout this period. The construction of the modern college building began in 1835 and took its present form in the early part of the 20th century, following the demolition of previous buildings on the site.

In recent times, teaching at the university gravitated towards King's College or Foresterhill for medicine students and a new purpose for Marischal College was considered and consequently leased to the City Council. The extensive renovation was completed on schedule and significantly under budget and the building opened to the public in June 2011.The university has retained the Mitchell Hall and a number of other significant parts of the building, in addition to the Marischal Museum for its own use