Banff
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 historical region of Banffshire. Banff's initial castle was developed to fend off Viking invaders and also a charter of 1163 AD shows that Malcolm IV was living there at that time. During this period the town was a hectic trading centre in the "free hanse" of Northern Scottish burghs, in spite of not having its own harbour until 1775. The very first documented Sheriff of Banff was Richard de Strathewan in 1264, and also in 1372 Royal Burgh status was provided by King Robert II. By the 15th century Banff was just one of three principal communities exporting salmon to the continent of Europe, in addition to Aberdeen and also Montrose. There was a great deal of lawlessness in seventeenth-century Scotland, and several of the most awful offenders were participants of the nobility. According to documents kept by historian William Cramond, the tolbooth (court house and prison) of Banff was, in 1628, the site of an altercation in between Lord Banff and James Ogilvie, his relative. Supposedly, he struck James Ogilvie upon the head with a baton throughout a court hearing. Twenty of his good friends as well as followers then attacked Ogilvie with swords prior to chasing him right into the street as well as finishing him off with a handgun shot. Banff as well as Macduff are divided by the valley of the River Deveron. This uncertain river was finally tamed by the 7 arched bridge finished in 1779 by John Smeaton. An earlier bridge had been built in 1765, but was swept away in 1768. The old ferry was restored into use, till it was shed in a flood in 1773. A public meeting was kept in 1800 and passed a resolution for the building of a turnpike roadway between Turiff as well as Banff as the existing roadway remained in an unfortunate state of repair. Later on 19th century transportation improvements consisted of the building of two train lines, from Macduff to Turiff in 1860 as well as the Banff, Portsoy as well as Strathisla Railway in 1859 which linked to the major Aberdeen to Inverness line. Throughout the 19th Century the Banff Fishery Area (making up the ports from Crovie to Sandend) was essential to the herring trade, with manufacturing peaking in 1853 at greater than sixty-thousand barrels, of which nearly thirty-four thousand were exported, nonetheless by 1912 production had declined to simply over 8 thousand barrels. Presently, the languages talked in the community and also in its vicinity often tend to be the Doric language of Scots, as well as English.