Place:Banffshire, Scotland

Watchers
NameBanffshire
Alt namesSiorrachd Bhanbhsource: Wikipedia
County of Banffsource: wikipedia
TypeTraditional county
Coordinates57.3°N 3.05°W
Located inScotland     (1890 - 1975)
See alsoGrampian Region, Scotlandauthority from 1975-1996
Moray (council area), Scotlandcouncil which took on part of Banffshire since 1996
Aberdeenshire (council area), Scotlandcouncil which took on part of Banffshire since 1996
Contained Places
District municipality
Moray District ( - 1965 )
Inhabited place
Buckie ( - 1975 )
Dufftown ( - 1975 )
Findochty ( - 1975 )
Portknockie ( - 1975 )
Parish
Aberlour ( - 1975 )
Alvah
Banff
Bellie ( - 1891 )
Boharm
Botriphnie
Boyndie
Cabrach ( 1891 - 1975 )
Cullen ( - 1975 )
Deskford
Enzie
Fordyce
Forglen
Gamrie
Grange
Inveravon
Inverkeithny
Keith ( - 1975 )
Kirkmichael
Marnoch
Mortlach
Ordiquhill
Rathven
Rothiemay
St. Fergus ( 1891 - )
:the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Banffshire was a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland.

The county town was Banff although the largest community was Buckie located to the west of Banff. The county borders the Moray Firth to the north, Moray and Inverness-shire to the west, and Aberdeenshire to the south.

Until 1891 the county contained various exclaves which were situated within Aberdeenshire, the biggest being the parish and village of St. Fergus.

Between 1890 and 1975 Banffshire had its own county council.

In 1975, Banffshire was abolished for purpose of local government. Its territory was divided between the local government districts of Moray and Banff and Buchan, which lay within the Grampian Region. In 1996, the region was abolished, and the area now lies within the Council Areas of Moray and Aberdeenshire.

Image:Banffshire sketch.png

The map above was taken from a sketch formerly found in GENUKI's Banff page which again was based on an 1845 map in the New Statistical Account of Scotland. As the GENUKI editor explains, the boundaries of Banffshire varied greatly over time. He lists another nine parishes that were exclaves of Banffshire and located within other surrounding counties: Cairnie, Enzie, Gartly, Glass, King Edward, New Machar, Old Deer, Rothes and St. Fergus. (NOTE: WeRelate titles parishes within their county in 1900. Some transfers across counties occurred between 1845 and 1900.)

The GENUKI article quotes from various 19th-century Scottish Gazetteers.

The original article from Wikipedia does not always distinguish between Banffshire before and after 1975 when Banffshire no longer existed as a county.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Banffshire.

Research Tips

  • official civil (from 1855) and parish registers (from when first produced) for births, marriages and deaths for all of Scotland
  • original census images for all years available (1841-1911).
  • collections of wills and testaments and
  • property tax listings
  • an extensive collection of local maps
  • kirk session records for individual parishes (added in 2021 and not yet complete).

This site is extremely easy to use. There are charges for parish register entries, collections of wills, and census listings (the 1881 census is free to view, also on Ancestry and FindMyPast). The charges are reasonable and payable by online transfer. Viewing the kirk session records is free, but a charge will be made for a copy.

  • The National Library of Scotland have an online map collection of historic and modern day maps which can zoom in on a specific farmhouse or street in a town. Their collection also includes London and some counties of southeast England.
  • Gazetteer for Scotland contains an article for each parish from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland by F. H. Groome, (published 1882-4) and short details about each parish today including names of small settlements within a parish.
  • The FamilySearch Wiki explains a great many legal terms only found in Scotland and provides a gazetteer for genealogists for each parish across the county. It reviews the availablility of parish registers.
  • GENUKI Scotland which provides for each Scottish parish (indexed by county), amongst other data, complete quotations from A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (1851) by Samuel Lewis, John Bartholomew's A Gazetteer of the British Isles (1877), and possibly other gazetteers from individual counties and regions. It is worth reviewing one of its county pages to see what is available online or in print from local archive providers. Each county page has a "Where in ---shire is .... ? section--very helpful in pinpointing the small places below parish level.
  • A list of Burial Grounds in Scotland is now available on the website of the Scottish Association of Family History Societies.
  • The Statistical Accounts of Scotland Online provides access to digitised and fully searchable versions of both the Old Statistical Account (1791-99) and the New Statistical Account (1834-45). These uniquely rich and detailed parish reports, usually written by local Church of Scotland ministers, detail social conditions in Scotland and are an invaluable resource for anyone interested in Scottish history.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Banffshire. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.