Coastal town overlooking a curved sandy beach and calm grey sea

Aberdeenshire

Banff

An old royal burgh and county town at the mouth of the Deveron on the Moray Firth coast, with fine Georgian streets, Smeaton's bridge of 1799 and William Adam's Duff House.

Welcome

Where the River Deveron meets the Moray Firth, Banff climbs a hillside above a wide sandy bay, looking across the water to Macduff.

It was one of the great ports of medieval Scotland, a royal burgh with a castle of the Comyns, and later the county town of Banffshire, and the grand stone buildings of those days still line its streets.

The old town is full of fine 18th-century houses, many marked with the plaques of the local preservation society, and Low Street and the steep old lanes are a pleasure to wander. Banff Castle is not a castle at all but a Georgian mansion by John Adam, built on the site of the old one. John Smeaton, builder of the Eddystone lighthouse, finished the seven-arched bridge over the Deveron in 1799.

Just up the river stands Duff House, a baroque palace designed by William Adam, and along the shore the harbour, the beach and the cliffs of the Banffshire coast.

A short drive awayThe Platform and Annie's CakeryMacduff's old railway station of 1872, now shops and a patisserie looking over the Moray Firth.3 min by roadSee it

An old ship's anchor set above Macduff harbour and the sea.

Before you go

A town, open at all times.

The Banff and Macduff Heritage Trail links its sights with stories told by local people, on an app.

Where: The Moray Firth coast, at the mouth of the River Deveron, 47 miles north-west of Aberdeen.
To see: Low Street, Banff Castle, Smeaton's bridge, Duff House, the harbour.

Where it is

On the Moray Firth coast of Aberdeenshire, on the west side of the mouth of the River Deveron, across the bay from Macduff.

Close byThe Banffshire coast.