Publication Account

Date 1977

Event ID 1017801

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017801

The existence of a sheriff at Banff in 1242 implies that a castle was at the burgh at that date. The present castle, now a community centre, dates from 1750. It is unknown whether the former castle was abandoned, altho'1gh one observer, writing in 1724, noted that 'to the north of the toune stands the Castle of Banff. ... a pleasant dwelling with a wall and of old fortified' (Cramond1 1891, 17}, Until 1820 a small seventeenth-century building, reputed to be the birthplace of Archbishop Sharpe, was attached to the 1750 structure. Pococke, on his tour of Scotland, remarked that this later structure 'was a small house on the site of the Old Castle. . . this precinct of the Castle was about 100 feet square, and a part of the Enclosure remains.' Pococke continued by describing the lawns and grounds around the castle, concluding that it was a 'delightful summer situation' (Kemp, 1887, 194). John Punbar has noted that the earliest surviving fragment of curtain-wall is not earlier than the late sixteenth century. Francis Douglas, commenting in 1782, said of Banff Castle 'on the sides, and in front of the house, walks and terraces have been cut and levelled .... '(1782, 297). It is likely that the medieval ditch and bank were tidied up during the course of these operations.

Information from ‘Historic Banff: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1977).