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 previous royal burgh, and also is the county town of the historic county of Banffshire. Banff's very first castle was constructed to push back Viking invaders and a charter of 1163 AD shows that Malcolm IV was living there during that time. During this period the community was a busy trading centre in the "free hanse" of Northern Scottish burghs, in spite of not having its own harbour till 1775. The first recorded Sheriff of Banff was Richard de Strathewan in 1264, and also in 1372 Royal Burgh condition was provided by King Robert II. By the 15th century Banff was among three primary towns exporting salmon to the continent of Europe, along with Aberdeen as well as Montrose. There was a good deal of lawlessness in seventeenth-century Scotland, and also several of the worst transgressors were members of the nobility. According to documents maintained by historian William Cramond, the tolbooth (courthouse as well as jail) of Banff was, in 1628, the website of an altercation in between Lord Banff and also James Ogilvie, his loved one. Reportedly, he struck James Ogilvie upon the head with a baton during a court hearing. Twenty of his buddies and followers after that attacked Ogilvie with swords prior to chasing him right into the street and finishing him off with a gun shot. Banff and also Macduff are separated by the valley of the River Deveron. This uncertain river was lastly tamed by the 7 arched bridge completed in 1779 by John Smeaton. An earlier bridge had actually been integrated in 1765, yet was swept away in 1768. The old ferryboat was revived right into use, until it was shed in a flooding in 1773. A public conference was held in 1800 and passed a resolution for the building of a turnpike roadway between Turiff and Banff as the existing roadway was in a depressing state of repair service. Later 19th century transport enhancements included the building of 2 train lines, from Macduff to Turiff in 1860 as well as the Banff, Portsoy and also Strathisla Railway in 1859 which connected to the primary Aberdeen to Inverness line. During the 19th Century the Banff Fishery Area (consisting of the ports from Crovie to Sandend) was important to the herring trade, with production peaking in 1853 at greater than sixty-thousand barrels, of which almost thirty-four thousand were exported, nevertheless by 1912 manufacturing had decreased to just over 8 thousand barrels. Currently, the languages talked in the town and in its vicinity often tend to be the Doric dialect of Scots, and also English.