Banffshire
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Banffshire
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(Click on the picture to see a larger one) Banffshire is an unusually wedge shaped county situated on the southern shore of the Moray Firth. To its east lies Aberdeenshire while to the west, across the River Spey, lie the counties of Morayshire and Inverness-shire. The county has a great tradition of fishing, but is probably now best known internationally for its renowned whisky distilleries, most of which border the Spey or one of its estuaries, e.g. the Livet. Banff is associated with young James
MacPherson. Son of a gypsy, MacPherson was a renowned fiddler
who got into trouble with the law - he was convicted of the curious
crimes of being "known, holden and repute, to be an Egyptian and
vagabond, of keeping the Mercats in a hostile manner, and of being a
thief and receptor of thieves". For these offences he was
sentenced to be hanged at Banff on 19th November 1700. Confidently
expecting a reprieve, MacPherson attempted to delay the hanging by entertaining
the crowd with a selection of Scottish airs including, late on, the
angry, despairing MacPherson's Rant. In response, the law officers
put the clock forward twenty minutes. When MacPherson realised
that there was no hope, he offered his fiddle to the crowd and, on there
being no takers, broke it over his knee before going to his death.
You can still see the broken fiddle in the Clan MacPherson Centre in
Inverness-shire. The incident inspired Robert Burns to write MacPherson's
Farewell:
Great family names associated with the county include Grant, Innes, Ogilvie, Cumming and, of course, the powerful Gordons who frequently feuded with the area's other clans. In the late 18th century the Gordons founded the army regiments that later became the famous Gordon Highlanders. The Mearnscraft map of Banffshire has a stich count of 196 x 160 and, when stitched on the recommended 27-count Linda evenweave measures 14� x 11� inches (368 x 302 mm). As well as the usual landscape features, place names, compass and crest there are 14 buildings together with fishing and sailing boats.
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