Banff is a town in the Banff and Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Banff is situated on Banff Bay and faces the town of Macduff across the estuary of the River Banff is a former royal burgh, as well as is the county town of the historical region of Banffshire. Banff's initial castle was constructed to fend off Viking intruders as well as a charter of 1163 AD shows that Malcolm IV was living there back then. During this period the town was an active trading centre in the "cost-free hanse" of Northern Scottish burghs, regardless of not having its very own harbour till 1775. The first documented Sheriff of Banff was Richard de Strathewan in 1264, as well as in 1372 Royal Burgh standing was provided by King Robert II. By the 15th century Banff was just one of 3 principal towns exporting salmon to the continent of Europe, in addition to Aberdeen as well as Montrose. There was a lot of lawlessness in seventeenth-century Scotland, and also some of the worst culprits were participants of the nobility. According to records kept by chronicler William Cramond, the tolbooth (courthouse and also prison) of Banff was, in 1628, the site of a run-in between Lord Banff and also James Ogilvie, his relative. Reportedly, he struck James Ogilvie upon the head with a baton during a court hearing. Twenty of his close friends and also followers after that struck Ogilvie with swords before chasing him into the street as well as completing him off with a gun shot. Banff and Macduff are separated by the valley of the River Deveron. This unpredictable river was ultimately tamed by the 7 curved bridge completed in 1779 by John Smeaton. An earlier bridge had actually been integrated in 1765, but was swept away in 1768. The old ferry was brought back right into usage, until it was shed in a flood in 1773. A public conference was held in 1800 and passed a resolution for the building of a turnpike roadway in between Turiff and also Banff as the existing roadway was in a sad state of repair. Later on 19th century transport enhancements consisted of the structure of two railway lines, from Macduff to Turiff in 1860 and the Banff, Portsoy and also Strathisla Train in 1859 which linked to the major Aberdeen to Inverness line. During the 19th Century the Banff Fishery District (consisting of the ports from Crovie to Sandend) was important to the herring profession, with production coming to a head in 1853 at greater than sixty-thousand barrels, of which virtually thirty-four thousand were exported, however by 1912 production had actually decreased to simply over 8 thousand barrels. Presently, the languages spoken in the community and in its area have a tendency to be the Doric dialect of Scots, as well as English.