Buckie, Banffshire
Historical Description
BUCKIE, a post-town, in the parish of RATHVEN, county of BANFF, situated on the sea-shore, at the mouth of the burn of Buckie, about a mile northward of the turnpike-road from Banff to Elgin, and above five miles eastward of the mouth of the river Spey. It is divided into the Sea-town and New-town, the total population, according to the last census, being 2165. The Sea-town extends both east and west of the burn's mouth, and has been a fishing station for about two centuries; the New-town was commenced in the year 1779. West of the mouth of the burn is a small pier, chiefly for the benefit of the fishermen's boats, but coal and salt, with other articles, are unloaded at it in summer. The white-fishing is prosecuted by thirty-two boats and upwards of 300 men; seven smoking-houses for curing haddocks have been lately established, and a brisk trade is carried on in exporting those fish. A considerable number of boats also go from this shore to the herring-fishery: in the year 1844, it appears that 152 boats went. On the east side of the burn's mouth, contiguous to the coastguard station, soundings were taken about the time the Caledonian Canal was cut, with the design of constructing a harbour of refuge for vessels making the transit from the east to the west seas by the canal. The locality is most suitable for a capacious and secure harbour: at the point of the rocks, at a stream ebb, the depth of water is six feet, and stream high water rises to twenty feet. Both the agricultural and commercial interests urgently call for the formation of a harbour. Buckie has a branch of the North of Scotland Bank, and contains places of worship for members of the Free Church, Episcopalians, and Roman Catholics; also a school provided by the members of the Free Church, who pay the teacher.