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, and also is the county town of the historical region of Banffshire. Banff's initial castle was developed to drive away Viking invaders and also a charter of 1163 AD shows that Malcolm IV was living there during that time. Throughout this duration the town was an active trading centre in the "complimentary hanse" of Northern Scottish burghs, regardless of not having its own harbour till 1775. The first taped Sheriff of Banff was Richard de Strathewan in 1264, as well as in 1372 Royal Burgh status was provided by King Robert II. By the 15th century Banff was one of 3 primary towns exporting salmon to the continent of Europe, along with Aberdeen and Montrose. There was a great deal of lawlessness in seventeenth-century Scotland, and also several of the worst wrongdoers were participants of the nobility. According to documents maintained by historian William Cramond, the tolbooth (court house as well as jail) of Banff was, in 1628, the site of a run-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 close friends as well as followers then struck Ogilvie with swords before chasing him right into the street as well as 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 curved bridge finished in 1779 by John Smeaton. An earlier bridge had been built in 1765, however was swept away in 1768. The old ferryboat was revived into usage, till it was shed in a flooding in 1773. A public meeting was held in 1800 as well as passed a resolution for the structure of a turnpike road between Turiff and Banff as the existing road was in a depressing state of repair work. Later 19th century transport renovations consisted of the structure of two train lines, from Macduff to Turiff in 1860 and also the Banff, Portsoy and also Strathisla Railway in 1859 which attached to the major Aberdeen to Inverness line. During the 19th Century the Banff Fishery District (making up the ports from Crovie to Sandend) was important to the herring trade, with production peaking in 1853 at more than sixty-thousand barrels, of which virtually thirty-four thousand were exported, nonetheless by 1912 production had actually declined to just over 8 thousand barrels. Currently, the languages talked in the community and in its area have a tendency to be the Doric dialect of Scots, and English.