King Edward castle

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This is one of my favourite places. It is beautiful of course and it has seen so many wondrous, historically important and sometimes terrible things. There are stone circles and Bronze Age cairns dotted around the countryside. There have been people here for a very long time indeed.

The Celtic Mormaers, it is thought, ruled this land for centuries from here, the principal seat. Bede Cruithnech, the Pict, the first Buchan man mentioned in history, lived here, and listened to St Drostan’s words about 520 AD. It is a formidable defensive location ideal for a castle, and so enter the Norman barons, the Comyns. Like so many other Norman nobles, the St Clairs or Sinclairs, Meldrums and Cheynes were invited to settle in the North East of Scotland by King David I. The King was enamoured with the feudal system and wanted to subjugate the Celtic folk.

Margaret, the only child of Fergus, the last Mormaer of Buchan, married William Comyn who became the first Scoto-Norman Earl of Buchan and he built a Norman keep right there in the 12th century.

The Comyns ruled Buchan from here for more than 100 years and played a very important role in the history of Scotland. After the death of the Maid of Norway, John Comyn and his cousin the Lord of Badenoch, the Black Comyn, were among the thirteen barons who could lay some possible claim to the throne of Scotland. But King Edward I of England had a desire to make Scotland a part of England. The Black Comyn died and his son the Red Comyn took over his claim.

Lots of battles and events preceded this but Edward invaded Scotland in 1296 and on July the 23rd 1296 King Edward I of England and his entire northern army came from Turriff to King Edward Castle to be entertained by John Comyn before moving on to Banff.

Edward invaded Scotland again in 1303 and marched through Buchan from Aberdeen and arrived in Banff on the 4th of September. The son of the Red Comyn who was one of the chosen Regents of Scotland fought a guerrilla war against Edward I of England, alongside William Wallace and Simon Fraser. He was famously slain by Robert the Bruce after a quarrel before the high altar of the church of the Minorite Friars in Dumfries. Bruce stabbed his rival because he believed Comyn had passed secrets to Edward.

John Comyn, the Earl of Buchan, and cousin to the Red Comyn, was now one of Robert the Bruce’s most deadly enemies and the most powerful noble of his time. He held court here in Kynedor Castle.

Bruce fled to Norway and came back to Scotland in the spring of 1307 and then the tide of battle turned in his favour. Bruce, a general of consummate ability, gained victory after victory in decisive battles, several of them near here, such as at Aikey Brae, Bruce Hill, Slains and the battle of Barra in the parish of Bourtie less than a mile from Oldmeldrum.

To make certain there would never be opposition again from such a powerful baron, Robert the Bruce wreaked a terrible vengeance on the people of Buchan. All Buchan was devastated including Kynedor Castle. Robert the Bruce is known by a few names but the Scottish hero is also called ‘the Bane of Buchan’.

My personal favourite character and hero for me is Isabella, the sister of Duncan, the Earl of Fife of the old line of Macduff, who was married to the Earl of Buchan, John Comyn. The right of crowning the Scottish Kings being hereditary to the family of Macduff, Isabella claimed this right. She, along with a body of retainers mounted on her husband’s war horses, arrived two days late for the ceremony at Scone. Because of her loyalty she was given the opportunity of again placing the Crown on Bruce’s head. Isabella was captured by the English and imprisoned, on orders from King Edward, in a wicker cage at Berwick Castle where she languished for 7 years, known as the ‘caged lady of Buchan’.

It is hard to imagine what King Edward would look like today if the events I have just described had turned out differently. At the height of their power there were no fewer than three earls, Buchan, Menteith and Athol and one great feudal baron, Comyn Lord of Strathbogie, with 30 knights owning land.

There remains no memorial for the Comyns in the land save the orisons of the monks of Deer, and places names such as Cuminestown.

There is not much of Kynedor Castle left just the stories. The masoned stones were used in the building of the Castleton Bridges in the 18th and 19th centuries and now span the burn instead of a drawbridge, but it looks affy bony. You can park at the picnic area and walk down a really good path to the old 18th century bridge, but watch yourself crossing the busy A947.

by Mark Findlater

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The first Banff Bridge 1765 to 1768

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Photo of old yellowed map showing the River Deveron and the piers of the first Banff Bridge.
  • Black and white image of a map with the River Deveron running north to south down the middle.
    Ordnance Survey maps of ~1870 showing the present Banff Bridge and the King’s Ford

The present Banff Bridge was opened in 1779, although not formally signed off until 17th June 1780.  Some of the original drawings of this Smeaton designed bridge, widened in 1881, do exist.  Many people are however aware that the present bridge replaced a previous one but little is known about it.

The Roy map of 1747 gives a sketch of both Banff and Down (although the latter is not named) and it does show a ford across the river.  This appears to be the King’s Ford, located 1350 feet south of the present bridge, just upstream of the mouth of the Gelly Burn on the Macduff side; part of the track from this ford to Down is still traceable on the ground.

A bit later there was also another ford utilising the west end of Scurry Island – the island just round the first major bend to the south – which joined the track past what is now Kirkside farm.

Use of the fords however was quite difficult and certainly dangerous; the tracks to them were also reported as not easy to navigate in wet weather – or until the 2nd Earl Fife undertook to improve them if the land was passed to him – which only took place in 1777.  The alternative was the use of a ferry, but some of the arguments used to make the case for a bridge show how dangerous the ferry was too: “not a single year passed without some unfortunate occurrence at this ferry”; “inconvenience to the public”; “frequent stoppage of mails”.  One of the reported incidents was 12th January 1739 when several people lost their lives after the ferry overturned.

The case for a bridge over the river was several decades in the making, and the earliest known detailed map of either Banff or Down (not named Macduff until 1783), dated October 1763, does show the beginnings of the first bridge.  This unique map shows the first bridge had three piers in the river, plus one on each bank – hence four arches compared to the present seven arched bridge.  It was largely paid for by the Government and is reported to have cost between five and six thousand pounds.  It opened in June 1765.

However great it was to stay dry crossing the river – remembering it was the main route to Aberdeen – on 17th September 1768 there was a large storm, and a huge spate of water came down the river.  This undermined the west, Banff side, pier, and the bridge collapsed, although fortunately without loss of life.

Unfortunately the ferry that had to be resumed was not so safe; in January 1773 seven lives were lost when the ferry was carried out into Banff Bay.

Smeaton decided that the new bridge should be located “the breadth of itself further up”.  Not particularly clear but the 1763 map allows some scale measurements to be taken and it would appear the old bridge was slightly to seaward of the present bridge.  The stones from the old bridge were re-used in the new bridge when work started in 1772, much of the rest coming from the quarry now at Bridge garage.

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The Big Day of the Year

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Before 1849 there were no public holidays in Banff, but one day in the year was certainly different.  The 6th of October was the Earl Fife’s birthday – I mean James, the fourth Earl. The festivities usually began by the arrival of the different coaches running to and from the burgh in Low Street, gaily decorated with flowers, like dahlias, hollyhocks and asters. The Aberdeen and Elgin coaches, in particular, vied with each other which would be most artistic. Imagine one with an iron-work foundation, rising into a crown on top, all a mass of colours. (As an aside, the poor passengers were rather bothered by earwigs).  After discharging their passengers the coaches were driven down to Duff House for inspection by the Earl, who appeared on the balcony, and would tip the drivers and the guards. The loons of Banff went along too, for the schoolboys always got a holiday upon the 6th of October. No sooner had the coaches cleared off from before the house than the Earl called the boys to the front, and, telling them to look out, showered amongst them handfuls of silver, great and small. The old man, in his flowered blue silk dressing-gown reaching his feet, and in his velvet skull-cap, used to laugh heartily over the squirming mass of humanity rolling and clutching at the cash.

The next part of the day’s proceedings caused criticism as Scotland became more Victorian. At one o’clock in the afternoon large casks of porter were set up under the care of his lordship’s servants at different points in the burgh—notably the Battery Green, North Castle Street, the Gallowhill, the Greystone, the Back Path, Low Street, Low Shore, and the Green Banks or Old Market Place. You can imagine the clamouring, thirsty crowd hovering about with mugs, jugs, and vessels of all shapes and sizes, eagerly waiting their turn at the tap.

At one o’clock in the afternoon within the Hotel a goodly number of the professional men, farmers in the neighbourhood, and master tradesmen of the burgh assembled to eat an excellent dinner and drink long life to the noble Earl. There also his lordship’s kindly thought came in, for he invariably sent to the Hotel a quantity of game and an ample supply of port and sherry from his own cellar for the use of the company.

The day’s proceedings were wound up with a mighty bonfire on the top of the Hill of Doune, a ball in the County Hall, to which the Earl also sent an unstinted supply of wines, including champagne, not so common then as it was later, while another ball for the benefit of his servants and work-people was held at the barnyards, within the demesne.

This story comes, almost word for word, from Mr Hossack’s memories fifty years later, as he recounted it to the Banffshire Field Club in 1900.

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