Paper short abstract:

This research explores encounters with place and story through the medium of walking tours in Aberdeen, Scotland. Interviews with guides and walk participants explore the uses and experience of the walking tour as a method of narrating historical and real-time changes to the city.

Paper long abstract:

Walking tours are performances based on pre-established routes and narratives, though the resonances of the stories they tell and encounters with place they facilitate are often deeply personal. In other words, both the medium of the walking tour and one's experience of it, can generate narratives of how places have changed over time.

In Aberdeen, Scotland, historical walks facilitate reminiscence and heritage discourse, and tell lesser-known stories about the city. Meanwhile, street art walking tours are a cornerstone in the city centre's redevelopment, based around place-making principles and aims to increase tourism to the region.

How, then, do these walking tours become part of a larger commentary on both past and currently unfolding changes in Aberdeen? Through their chosen narratives, guides openly seek to challenge perceptions of place among both residents and visitors. Discussions with walk participants reveal that participating in walks can trigger reflections on personal history, and allow for views about the present conditions in the city to be expressed.

While tour guide experiences and fieldwork reflections are included here, writing about walking has often focused strongly on the ethnographer's own experience, and writing on walking tours has emphasised the role of the tour guide over participants' perceptions. This research seeks to address these imbalances, prioritising the voices of walkers in exploring the short-term impact of their tour experiences.