Banchory Scotland

Welcome to Banchory Scotland

Banchory is an attractive place. It feels a little like a place of transit for visitors and tourists en-route to somewhere else, if you are passing through, it is well worth some of your time getting to know it better.

Banchory (Scottish Gaelic: Beannchar, 'blessed place') is a burgh or town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, lying approximately 18 miles west of Aberdeen, near where the Feugh River meets the River Dee.

The name is thought to be derived from an early Christian settlement founded by St Ternan. It is claimed that Ternan was a follower of St Ninian. He established a college on the banks of the River Dee to teach Christianity and agriculture to the local Picts.

Banchory is the largest town in the area and has a High Street. There are a number of hotels and restaurants including the Stag Hotel, Scott Skinners Bar and Restaurant, the Burnett Arms, and the Douglas Arms. The shops include newsagents, sports shops and chemists. Since the 1970s, the town has grown steadily. Since 2001 there has been rapid expansion. A large forested area 'the Hill of Banchory', owned by the Burnett family (owners of Crathes Castle), to the north east of the town has been replaced by a large housing estate and an influx of new residents. The Hill of Banchory primary school was opened in 2006 to cater for the increased population.

Accommodation in and around Banchory

Price Guide - per person based on sharing room: under $40 - $41 - 70 - more than $70

The village and parish was called Banchory Ternan until the 1970s. The original Gaelic form is almost identical to that of Bangor, of similar meaning, and also the site of a monastery, in Northern Ireland. Relics associated with St. Ternan were preserved by hereditary keepers at Banchory until the Scottish Reformation. Two early Christian cross-slabs survive in or near the old churchyard on the site of the early church. One is built into a corner of the 'mort house' in the churchyard, and shows two crosses incised in a worn pink granite slab. The other is a ringed cross in relief built into the wall facing the main road outside the churchyard.

Banchory is the hometown of 1811 Witchery players Colin Bell and Stewart Allen.

As a small rural town, surrounded by forestry and agricultural land, Banchory has seen considerable expansion in recent years. Development pressure continues to be strong and the town's population now exceeds 8,000. As Banchory expands, more demands are placed on local infrastructure such as doctors, dentists, sports facilities, swimming pool and schools. In recent years, the Bellfield Doctor's Surgery, the Fountain Dental Surgery, the Morrisons Supermarket and Banchory Academy have all undergone extended and upgraded facilities. In 2010, Tesco's built an eco-store to the West of the town, it is hoped this will encourage further residential development to this end of the village.

Banchory Academy is a state (public) secondary school, with a school roll of over 950. Despite strong opposition from the local community, a retirement home 'Dalvenie Home' was built on land next to the Academy in the 1990s. The planning process was taken to the Scottish Office where local opposition was overruled. The retirement home opened in 2001 and has restricted expansion of the Academy and the adjacent sports centre.

The pressure for development and the value of land in Banchory means that the Primary and Secondary School Campus area is being considered for sale to housing developers, with sites for a new Academy and a new Primary being investigated.

A golf club appeared in Banchory in 1905, and nearby Crathes Castle adds to the range of tourist attractions on offer in or around this attractive village. These also now include a golf driving range, mountain bike trails and a skatepark near the centre of the village.

A stroll around Banchory reveals a very well served community. There is a supermarket here for the staples of life, but the main street reveals a fascinating mixture of shops that are not at all the usual chain-store clones, and which apparently thrive in this Deeside atmosphere.

A short walk south from Banchory takes you past the camping and caravan park to the bridge over the River Dee. Here you can begin to appreciate the attraction so many feel for this river, and not just those with a fishing rod in hand. Where the Dee meets the River Feugh you can, if you time it right, watch salmon leaping as they make their one-way journeys back to the waters of their birth. South of the River Dee the countryside becomes surprisingly remote and here you can find evidence of the area's ancient residents in the form of three stone circles, most notably the Nine Stanes Stone Circle, now surrounded by forest.