2009 North Sea Super Puma Crash Memorial

The granite memorial sits quietly on the moorland near Braeside, marking where a Super Puma helicopter came down in April 2009. Eighteen people died that day - workers heading out to the Moray Firth oil platforms. It's not a visitor attraction in the traditional sense. There's no café, no interpretive boards, no gift shop. Just a simple stone remembrance in a vast, windswept landscape.

This is a place for reflection rather than sightseeing. You'll find it matters most to people with connections to the oil industry, families of those who died, and anyone wanting to pay quiet respects to a tragedy that shook Aberdeen. The journey out to Braeside involves driving through proper Scottish countryside - rolling hills, pine forests, the kind of terrain that makes you understand why this part of the world matters for offshore work.

Allow an hour if you're making the trip deliberately. The memorial itself takes minutes, but the drive and the walk across the moor are worth the time. It's free to visit, open year-round. Winter's bleak out here; autumn's better for getting a sense of the place without the bite.

If you're basing yourself at Deeside Holiday Park or Seaview Caravan Park for a Royal Deeside break, this sits about five miles away - not far enough to plan a separate outing, but worth knowing about if you're exploring the area. It's the kind of stop that sticks with you longer than more cheerful attractions.