Place:Banffshire, Scotland

The map above is based on a sketch found in GENUKI's Banff pages 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 part of Banffshire although not in this map: Cairnie, Enzie, Gartly, Glass, King Edward, New Machar, Old Deer, Rothes and St Fergus.

The Genuki article quotes from various 19th-century Scottish Gazetteers. Similar descriptions of the various parishes can be accessed from the Banffshire page.

The article from Wikipedia, quoted below, discusses Banffshire as surveyed after 1996.

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The County of Banff is a registration county for property, and Banffshire is a Lieutenancy area of Scotland.

The County of Banff, also known as Banffshire, was a local government county of Scotland with its own county council between 1890 and 1975. The county town was Banff although the largest community was Buckie to the west. It bordered 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 locally situated in Aberdeenshire, the biggest being the parish and village of St. Fergus. The county's area is now split between Moray council and Aberdeenshire council.

The region remained largely Roman Catholic after the Reformation (16th century) and suffered greatly in the ensuing struggles. During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (17th century), Banffshire was a Royalist stronghold. Located in the area are the ruins of several medieval castles and the 12th century kirk of Gamrie. From 1975 to 1996, the area of the previous county lay within the Grampian Region.

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source: Family History Library Catalog