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Banff Scotland History
Its first castle was built to defend the coast from Viking invasion, in the early 12th century the castle was a royal
residence. Banff’s first charter was granted in 1372. Banff already had a beautiful Mercat cross first
mentioned in 1542. the head of which shows carved effigies of the Crucifixion with St John and the Virgin
Mary in front and a figure of the Virgin child on the reverse. The present eight-sided shaft of the cross was probably made in 1627.
The Town Steeple has peculiar octagon, built between 1764 and 1762 despite the protests of Admiral
Gordon, next door who feared it would fall on his house.
The present Banff Castle was built by lord Desk ford in 1750. St Mary Church dates from 1789 though the fine classical spire was not finished until fifty
years later, and Banff academy, with its ionic pillars dating from1838 has now been superseded by a modern comprehensive school.
Duff House in 1735 was designed by William Adam but only the central block was completed at a cost of £70.000 when a crack appeared the Earle went to law with the architect,
the quarrel between the
two became so embittered that the Earle refused to live in his new house, which was modelled on the Villa Borghese.
In 1906 the Duke of fife presented Dull House to the town councils of Banff and Macduff. During the
Second World War while it was housing German prisoners of war it was bombed by the Nazis. It was handed over to the Department of the Environment which
restored much of the building, so William Adam splendid and richly detailed mansion is among the most
detailed works of Georgian architecture in Scotland.
The grounds on the haughland of the Deveron form an attractive public park alongside the Duff House, Royal golf course stretches
a picturesque gorge of the Deveron spanned by the Bridge of Alvah.
The architectural value of Banff’s old buildings has been recognized by the creation of the very active Banff preservation Society, of which the Poet Laureate was a patron.
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