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 Banchory High Street |
It just goes to show how careful you need to be with your Gaelic translations. Some authorities translate Banchory as smooth hollow; others as white cauldron.
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The first of these alternatives takes as its justification Banchory's location on the slopes above the north bank of the River Dee, about 15 miles west of Aberdeen. The second suggests the name comes from the rapids in the river hereabout. Take your pick.
 Converted Church |
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 Modern Apartments |
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For most, though, the name is part of a pair often heard on radio traffic reports. Banchory lies at the north end of the B974, which provides a short cut across the eastern arm of the Cairngorms as the mountain range finally descends towards the sea. It is usually the announcement on the Radio Scotland traffic news of the closure by snow of the B974 from Banchory to Fettercairn that heralds the approach of winter, just as the first cuckoo is meant to signify the onset of spring.
Banchory grew significantly in the late 1700s and consolidated its position through the following century. The railway reached the village in 1853, en route to its eventual destination in Ballater. With it came an influx of hotels and other businesses. The railway departed again in 1966, but plans are afoot to reopen it as a tourist venture, based on the station that was rebuilt here in 1903.
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.
Banchory is an attractive place. It feels a little like the dormitory for Aberdeen that it is: and it feels a little like a place of transit for visitors and tourists en-route to somewhere else, and it is that too. But if you are passing through, it is well worth some of your time getting to know it better.
