A grim spot.

Welcome to Her Majesty's Prison Peterhead, overlooking the North Sea some 18 miles north of Newburgh-on Ythan. When it was built, back in 1888, the facility was designed to hold 208 prisoners and soon gained a reputation as one of Scotland's toughest prisons. At that time the convicts were put to work, under armed guard, in the nearby granite quarry at Stirling Hill and in the Admiralty Yard which was attached to the prison. Together with a civilian work force, employed by the Admiralty, the convicts were to build a pair of massive granite breakwaters across Peterhead Bay, designed to protect the Harbour of Refuge.

Today, the prison can accommodate up to 152 male prisoners and since 1994 it has dealt mainly with convicted, long term sex offenders, offering a range of programmes designed to challenge offending behaviour in order to reduce the risk of reoffending on return to the community.

The conditions in the prison have been criticised by the Prisons Inspectorate on a number of occasions. All the cells are single occupancy but the accommodation is very old and the majority of prisoners do not have access to 24 hour sanitation or to running water in their cells. Prisoners have chemical toilets which are emptied by prisoner work parties twice a week and get their water for person hygiene from flasks.

The Scottish Prison Service announced in 2009 that the prison would close to be replaced by 2014 with a new prison to be called HMP Grampian.