Banffshire

Banffshire, a county in the NE. of Scotland, bounded N. by the Moray Firth; E. and S. by Aberdeenshire; W. by Elgin and Inverness shires. It stands fifteenth among the Scotch counties, both in size and in population. Its greatest length is 59 miles, its greatest breadth is 31, and its area is 646 sq. m. The surface, especially in the south and south-east, is mountainous, interspersed with fertile valleys and fine pastures; but near the coast it is comparatively level. The chief mountain-ranges, rivers, and strike of the stratified rocks, run from south-west to north-east, and the whole county is an extensive slope in the same direction, from the Grampians to the Moray Firth, into which the rivers flow. The coast is rocky, but not high, except to the east of Banff. Chief summits are the Bin of Cullen (1050 feet), Knock Hill (1409), Meikle Conval (1867), Ben Rinnes (2755), and, on the Aberdeenshire border, Ben Macdhui (4296). The chief rivers are the Spey, which bounds a third of the county on the west; and the Deveron, 61 miles long, and mostly included within the county. The predominant rocks are granite, quartz rock, mica-slate, clay-slate, syenitic greenstone, graywacke, graywacke-slate, old red sandstone with fossil fishes, metamorphic limestone and serpentine. The serpentine near Portsoy has long been famous as the 'Portsoy marble.' Lead, iron, antimony, and plumbago occur in small quantity. The soil in many parts is very fertile, and highly cultivated. About 38 per cent. of the entire area is in cultivation, more attention being paid to the breeding of cattle than to crops. The manufactures are unimportant, Glenlivet whisky excepted. The herring-fishery is largely carried on; and the salmon-fisheries of the Spey and Deveron are very valuable, the Spey ranking after the Tweed and Tay as a salmon-river. The southern part of Banffshire is in the Highlands, the north being purely Lowland in aspect as in race-characters. Banffshire is divided into the districts of Enzie, Boyne, Strath-Isle, Strathdeveron, Balveny, Glenlivet, and Strath- avon. The chief towns and villages are Banff, Macduff, Portsoy, Keith, Cullen, Buckie, Duftown, and Tomintoul. Banffshire, along with the counties of Aberdeen and Elgin, enjoys the Dick Bequest (q.v.) for parochial education. The county returns one member to parliament. Banffshire contains numerous remains of antiquity, as the old churches of Gannrie and Mortlach, and the ruined castles of Auchindoun, Balvenie, Boharm, and Findlater. The battle of Glenlivet (q.v.) was fought in 1594. Pop. (1801) 37,216; (1841) 49,670; (1881) 62,736; (1891) 64,190.