BANFFSHIRE. 



BANFFSHIRE. 



appearance. It has several well-built streets, which, though some- 

 what antiquated in the style of their buildings, are remarkable for 

 their cleanness. It was erected into a royal burgh in 1372 by 

 Robert II., and its privileges were confirmed by James VI. and 

 Charles II. There is a tradition that the place was made a royal 

 burgh by Malcolm Canmore, but this statement is unsupported by 

 evidence. Banff at one time possessed a castle of considerable 

 importance, the remains of which still exist. As a constabulary it 

 was long under the hereditary government of the family of Buchau. 

 James Sharp the celebrated Archbishop of St. Andrew's, was born in 

 Banff Castle in May, 1613. There was in the town a convent of 

 Carmelites, or White Friars, the superiorities and feu duties whereof 

 were granted to the old college of Aberdeen by James VI. in 1617, 

 and purchased from the college in 1752 by the Earl of Fife. 



Over the Doveran there is a beautiful stone bridge of seven arches 

 which commands an extensive view, embracing Duff House, the seat 

 of the Earl of Fife, situated in a large park and surrounded by a 

 forest of trees. Banff has a spacious church, built in 1790, of which 

 the spire is still unfinished. At Ord in the neighbourhood is a chapel 

 of the I jitablishment. There are in the town a Free church ; an 

 Episcopal chapel, which is a handsome gothic edifice ; and chapels 

 for United Presbyterians, Independents, and Roman Catholics. The 

 town-house built in 1798 has a handsome spire. A prison was built 

 in the same year. There is an excellent academy supported by the 

 funds of the burgh, in which the elementary branches of education 

 are taught ; there are also several private schools. Some years since 

 a scientific institution was formed, which has been remarkably 

 prosperous. 



The harbour of Banff is so liable to be filled up with sand that 

 many vessels are prevented from entering, a circumstance much 

 against the prosperity of the place. The principal exports are corn, 

 cattle, salmon, and herrings. The herring-fishery is carried on to a 

 considerable extent and on the whole with success. The salmon- 

 fishery is pursued both in the Doveran and in the sea at its mouth ; 

 the salmon are sent chiefly to the London market packed in ice. 

 The right of fishing is let by the Earl of Fife, the proprietor, for 

 16001. a year. The registered vessels on December 31st, 1852, were 

 144 of 12,689 tons aggregate burden. During 1852 there were 

 entered at the port 762 sailing vessels of 46,583 tons, and there 

 cleared 686 of 37,685 tons aggregate burden. Of steam vessels there 

 entered 5 of 350 tons, and cleared 4 of 280 tons aggregate burden. 



The manufactures of Banff include thread, linen, stockings, soap, 

 and leather. There are in the town several libraries of some extent 

 and value, belonging to various societies. Like most other towns in 

 the north of Scotland, Banff suffered severely from the destructive 

 floods of August, 1829, several of the houses having been undermined 

 and carried away and serious damage done to property. 



(Pennant's Tour through Scotland; Cordiner's Antiquities of North 

 Britain ; New Statittical Account of Scotland ; Buchanan's History of 

 Scotlaw/. } 



BANFFSHIRE, a county in the north of Scotland, forms a long 

 slope between a range of the Grampians and the Moray Frith. It is 

 bounded E. and S.E. by Abcrdeeushire, W. by Elginshire, and N. by 

 the Moray Frith. The sea-coast of the county is 34 miles in length ; 

 from it northern boundary to the head of Glen Avon, where the 

 county is sharpened to a point, it measures 50 miles. Banffshire 

 contains 647 square miles, or, exclusive of a small space covered with 

 water, 412,080 English acres. 



Surface, Geology, <tc. The face of the country is diversified with 

 hills and dales, woods and rivers. The coast is rocky but not high. 

 The good soil along the coast appears to extend inland from 2 to 8 

 miles, and here the land is in a state of the highest cultivation. The 

 southern part of the county is mountainous and pastoral rather than 

 agricultural. There are however many fertile valleys. The large 

 tract* of land in the upper or hilly districts are adapted for grazing. 

 They are abundantly watered by the numerous rivers and streams of 

 the county. The Spey, one of the largest rivers in Scotland and the 

 most rapid, runs along a part of the western boundary of Bauffshire ; 

 and the Doveran, which rises among the hills of Cabrach, runs north- 

 east to Huntly in Aberdeenshire, thence turns north till it re-enters 

 liiinfl'shire at Woodside, and then waters the eastern confines of the 

 county until it falls into the Moray Frith at Banff. The Avon, a 

 feeder of the Spey, rises in Loch Avon, in the extreme south-western 

 angle of the county. 



Some of the mountains in Banffshire are among the highest in 

 Britain. The northern side of Ben-mac-Dhu, 4362 feet above the 

 level of the sea, and the eastern side of Cairngorm, 4060 feet above 

 the level of the sea, are in this county, both of them on the southern 

 extremity of Glen Avon where it unites Aberdeenshiro and Inverness- 

 shire. Den-rinnes near the Spey a little distance north-east of its 

 junction with the Avon, attains a height of 2747 feet ; and Knockhill, 

 the Buck of Cubrach, and Corryhabie, are severally about 1500 feet 

 high. Several mountains are covered on their tops with regular beds 

 of moss, containing the remains of trees, plmts, and \vgrt:ililr >. 

 There are others whose summits of granite protrudo through thick 

 beds of gneiss, which passes into mica-slate. The most common 

 rocks in the county are granite, gneiss, graywucke, graywaeke-slate, 

 iimirt/, niiniite, old red-sandstone, mica-slate, clay-slate, freestone, and 



OEOO. D1V. VOL. I. 



limestone of recent formation. At Portsoy near the coast is a bed of 

 serpentine generally called Portsoy marble. There is also a species of 

 granite in the same place which when polished exhibits various figures, 

 some of them fancifully supposed to resemble Arabic and Hebrew 

 characters. In several parts of the county lead, iron, and other 

 minerals have been discovered. In the neighbourhood of Keith there 

 is a vein of sulphuret of antimony imbedded in fluor-spar ; and about 

 a mile westward of Banff is a bed of blue clay containing various 

 organic remains. Fossil fish or ichthyolites, imbedded in nodules, 

 have been discovered in the neighbourhood of Banff. Rock crystals 

 and topazes are found on Cairngorm. They were formerly much 

 sought after and brought a high price ; but of late years similar 

 stones have been imported from Brazil, where they are so abundant 

 as to enable the merchants who import them to sell them at a 

 hundredth part of the price often given by lapidaries for those 

 found on Cairngorm. Hones or whetstones are procured in Balveny. 



The principal towns in the county are BANFF, the county town, and 

 CULLEN, a royal burgh ; KEITH ; Dufftown, a village with 998 inhabit- 

 ants, and a venerable old church; Buckie, a fishing village with 145 

 fishing boats, and a population of 2789 ; and Tomintoul, population 

 641. Portsoy is a small burgh, port and market-town, with 

 2062 inhabitants. It has some foreign commerce, vessels frorn the 

 Baltic importing bones for manure, and taking back cargoes of cured 

 herrings ; a few vessels belonging to the port are chiefly employed in 

 importing Scotch and English coals ; there are some fishing boats ; 

 these, and the lime quarries, a small rope manufactory, and husbandly, 

 afford the principal occupation of the inhabitants. The village of 

 Newmills, the fishing-stations of Gardenstown and Macduff, the last a 

 suburb of Banff, and included within the limits of its parliamentary 

 franchise, need but to be mentioned. 



Industry. The principal manufactures of Banffshire are weaving, 

 bleaching, flax-dressing, tanning, and distilling, which last has been 

 carried on to a very considerable extent. 



Salmon-fisheries are established on the rivers Doveran and Spey. 

 For many years considerable quantities of salmon have been exported, 

 chiefly to the London market. The herring-fishery is earned on along 

 the coast on a large scale. In 1815 there were only two boats of 15 

 tons each engaged in this fishery ; but for many years the number of 

 boats has varied from 400 to 500, the tonnage of each boat being 

 about the same as in 1815. Along the coast of Banff this branch of 

 industry has been prosecuted with great sxiccess. 



The shipping trade is considerable for the extent of the county. It 

 is chiefly carried on at the ports of Banff, Macduft', Portsoy, and 

 Gardenstown. The exports principally consist of grain and meal, with 

 black cattle and other live stock. The imports are for the most part 

 timber, coals, iron, &c. The exports of grain are considerable. 



Ayi*iculture. Agriculture is in general conducted on the most 

 approved principles. In the lower districts of the county the fields 

 are well laid out and abundantly manured. The fields are inclosed 

 either with hedges or stone dykes, but generally the latter. Wheat, 

 barley, bere, and oats are the kinds of grain chiefly grown. It is 

 estimated that nearly one-third of the laud has not yet been brought 

 under the plough. A large portion of the waste land could not bo 

 cultivated with profit ; but there are large tracts which might be made 

 profitable. All the farms of any extent are under a regular rotation 

 of cropping. The average size of the farms is from 100 to 200 arable 

 acres, with a quantity of moorland or pasture, which varies in the 

 different parts of the county, the proportion of arable land being least 

 in the mountainous districts. The leases are generally for a term of 

 19 years. The cattle and stock of every kind are of the best breeds 

 that can be procured. 



The climate is variable. Along the coast it is dry and genial, and 

 the crops ripen well ; but in the mountainous districts the climate is 

 cold and humid, and the harvest in those parts is late. It is considered 

 an early season when the harvest is completed in the upper districts 

 by the middle of October. 



Along the sea-coast the inhabitants are well supplied with coals ; 

 but from the expense of inland carriage the population in the higher 

 districts are obliged to be contented with peat for fuel. 



Antiqnitia.Tbe remains of antiquity in this county are very 

 numerous. Near Cullen are the ruins of the ancient castle of Findlator, 

 which stood on a high rock projecting into the sea. Ballindalloch 

 Castle, in Inveravon, is the residence of the proprietor. There are 

 traces of other castles at Drumin, Deskford, Galval, Balvery, &c. The 

 churches of Mortlach and of Gamrie are also remarkable on account 

 of their antiquity.- Mortlach was for about a century the seat of a 

 bishop ; but David I. translated the see to Old Aberdeen, and as it was 

 poor and ill-provided conferred on it many lands. The church of 

 Gamrie is called the Kirk of Skulls, from the circumstance of the 

 bones of the Norsemen who fell in the battle on an adjoining field 

 called Bloody Pots, having been built into its walls. This church was 

 erected in the year 1010, and it continued to be used aa the parish 

 church till 1830. 



There are several cairns or tumuli in the county. These were the 

 places of interment of the ancient Caledonians, and also of the Norse- 

 men ; for they were common to both nations. There was formerly a 

 very remarkable cairn at Kilhillock. It was 60 feet in diameter, and 

 16 feet in height. On opening the cairn a stone coffin was found 



3 K 



