A short visitor's guide to Banff, Aberdeenshire: things to do, places to eat and drink, and what's on through the year.
Banff is a former royal burgh on the north Aberdeenshire coast, set on Banff Bay where the River Deveron meets the Moray Firth. It faces its sister town of Macduff across the estuary and was, for centuries, the county town of historic Banffshire, which gives the small Georgian centre an unusually formal character for a place this size.
Most visitors come for the Georgian streets and the grand setting of Duff House on the southern edge of town, the long sandy beach a short walk west, and the easy day-tripping along the Moray Firth coast to the harbour villages of Whitehills and beyond. It is a quiet, walkable base for exploring this stretch of north-east Scotland, with working harbours, distilleries and clifftop paths all close at hand.
Banff's attractions cluster around the Georgian heart of the town and the wooded estate to the south, with most reachable on foot from the centre.
The headline draw is Duff House, the William Adam-designed Georgian estate house on the southern edge of town, now part of the National Galleries of Scotland and home to rotating exhibitions of Scottish and European painting. A short walk through the grounds brings you to the Duff House Mausoleum on Colleonard Drive, the family burial place that survived when the original mausoleum was demolished. Down on the front, Banff beach at the foot of Bridge Street is the broad sandy frontage that gives the town its outlook to the Moray Firth, and the Banff and Macduff Heritage Trail, starting at 32 Low Street, is a marked walking route that links the historic harbour, the bridge and the older streets of both towns. Architectural curiosities are scattered through the wider Duff House estate: the eighteenth-century Temple of Venus on the A98 above the river is a rotunda folly built as a viewing point, and the small stone Ice House is the surviving service building that once supplied the Big Hoose with frozen fish from the Deveron.
The best outdoor hours in Banff are spent on the Duff House estate or along the coastal path either side of the harbour.
The Duff House Public Gardens at Airlie Gardens are the formal walled gardens attached to the estate house, free to wander and a quiet alternative to the longer woodland walks through the grounds. From the gardens, paths drop down through the policies to the River Deveron and back up into Banff itself; the same network connects to the riverside walk under the Banff Bridge and on into the start of the heritage trail towards Macduff.
Banff has the wet-weather options you would hope for from a small town that draws year-round visitors, all within a short walk of the High Street.
The Museum of Banff on the High Street is the local-history museum, a useful first stop for a sense of the burgh's silver, fishing and royal-burgh past, and Banff Library at the same address keeps the heritage collections to hand. For families and longer stays, Banff Swimming Pool on Bellevue Road has a public pool and the Deveron Community and Sports Centre at the same site adds the gym, sports halls and indoor courts that turn a rainy afternoon back into an active one.
Banff's pubs run along High Shore, North Castle Street and Castle Street, all within a couple of minutes of the Plainstones and the bridge.
The pick of the bunch by some distance is the Market Arms on High Shore, the long-standing local at the foot of the High Street and the busiest spot in town on a weekend evening. The Railway Inn on North Castle Street is the unfussy alternative, a wet-led pub with a loyal following, and Castle Bar on Castle Street rounds out the High Street trio. For something more grown-up, Macduff Distillery sits just across the bridge on the A497 and is one of the working single malt distilleries on the Moray Firth coast, worth a detour for anyone with a passing interest in Speyside-adjacent whisky.
Banff's eating-out scene is heavy on chippies and takeaways, with a couple of dependable sit-down options and a strong showing of curry and Chinese.
The runaway favourite for sit-down food is the Indian Garden Restaurant and Takeaway on Bridge Street, a long-running Indian with a steady stream of local repeat business. For a chippy tea, Freddies Chip Shop on Low Street is the locals' pick, with LightHouse Fish Bar on the High Street and Crown Chippy on Lusylaw Road covering the rest of the catchment between them. Bridgeview Restaurant at Old Market Place is the more conventional sit-down restaurant on the Banff side of the bridge. For takeaway variety, Pyramids Takeaway on Low Street and Happy Palace a few doors down split the vote between Mediterranean grills and Chinese.
Banff's daytime spots split between the old-school bakeries on the High Street and a handful of newer cafes round the castle and across the bridge.
The stand-out is Annies Cakery on Station Brae just over the bridge in Macduff, inside The Platform, where morning scones, light lunches and a heroic cake counter come with the best view across Banff Bay. Back on the Banff side, Kafé. on Low Street is the small specialty cafe doing sit-in or takeaway coffee, breakfast and lunch; Castle Garden Coffee House & Cafe on Castle Street serves breakfasts from nine and pancakes, scones and cakes through to four with free parking in the castle grounds and a dog-friendly welcome. For the bakery run, Home Bakery on the High Street and Ross J G a few doors up between them keep the morning queues moving, and The Coffee Pot rounds out the line-up for a hop-in coffee.
Banff is a drive-to town: the historic burgh lost its passenger railway in the 1960s, so almost everyone arrives by car, with bus links from Aberdeen filling in the rest.
By train, there is no longer a station in Banff itself. The original Banff Harbour line opened in 1857, the Banff & Macduff line in 1860, and the closer Banff Bridge station from 1872; all closed in the mid-twentieth-century cuts, with Banff Bridge gone by the end of 1951 and Banff Harbour following on 6 July 1964. The nearest open stations are Huntly and Keith, both around twenty miles (thirty kilometres) inland, on the ScotRail Aberdeen to Inverness line.
By car, the A98 is the spine of the Moray Firth coast and links Banff west towards Cullen and Buckie and east through Boyndie to Fraserburgh, while the A97 drops south to Huntly and the A96. By bus, regular Stagecoach services connect Banff with Aberdeen, Macduff, Fraserburgh and Elgin; allow a little over two hours from Aberdeen and around an hour from Elgin. The nearest airport is Aberdeen International, around fifty minutes by car.