Buckie

Cluny Harbour, Buckie, with town in background

Buckie (Gaelic: Bucaidh) is a burgh town of about 9,000 inhabitants on the Moray Firth coast of Scotland in Moray. Once a thriving fishing and shipbuilding port, these industries have declined. Indeed, although Peterhead and Aberdeen are more readily associated with the fishing industry in NE Scotland, Buckie had the largest registered fishing fleet of any port in the United Kingdom. Food processing remains important, with large fish factories and smoke houses found around the harbour. The Buckie Shipyard now builds and refurbishes lifeboats for much of the United Kingdom. A significant part of the population works in the offshore oil industry. Buckie was home to a specialist electric lamp factory of Thorn EMI until 1982 when it was closed and production moved to a new plant in Leicestershire under circumstances which smacked of political manoeuvring more than economic expediency, but that was not an unusual tactic in Margaret Thatcher's era. Interestingly all of the predominantly female staff were offered jobs at the new facility in the East Midlands but as the vast majority of the labour force were second wage earners in families this offer was almost universally rejected.

Buckie was the largest town in Banffshire by some thousands of inhabitants before regionalisation in 1975 removed that political division from the map of Scotland. The town is the third largest in the Moray Council area that was created in 1996 after Elgin and Forres.

Geographically the town is laid out in a linear fashion, following the coastline. There is a lower shore area and an upper area. Broadly speaking Buckie itself is the central part of the community lying between the Victoria Bridge under which flows the Buckie Burn at the western end of West Church Street, the eastern end of Cluny Harbour and above the shore area. To the west of Victoria Bridge and lying above the shoreline is Buckpool (formerly Nether Buckie) and on the shoreline there is The Yardie. To the east of Cluny Harbour lie Ianstown, Gordonsburgh and Portessie (formerly Port Eassie.) These communities were, to all intents and purposes, separate fishing communities which gradually merged. A new town was laid out above the shoreline in the 19th century and this is the rump of Buckie.

Cluny Harbour is probably still the true heart of Buckie and this project was built by the Cluny family in 1877 to replace an earlier harbour in Nether Buckie which was constructed in 1857 a mere mile or so to the west but had a tendency to silt up and become unusable. Later known as Buckpool Harbour this earlier port became something of an eyesore and the silted basin became overgrown and dangerously swampy. The decision was taken to fill in the basin and this work was undertaken in the 1970s. The resulting park includes a pebble beach and the original granite harbour walls remain completely intact.

Industry

As is typical of towns in the area Buckie is well served by golf courses with the eastern and western edges of the community ending in 18 holes. To the eastern extremity on a spectacular clifftop lies Strathlene Golf Club which stretches almost all the way to the village of Findochty and to the west, also on a clifftop, lies Buckpool Golf Club which reaches a good part of the way to the village of Portgordon.

Buckie High School [1] is located in Buckie on West Cathcart Street. Adjacent to the school is Victoria Park, home of Buckie Thistle Football Club.

Buckie is home to the Inchgower Distillery which sits a mile or so inland from the town and is best known for the Inchgower Single Malt.

Buckie is at the end of the Speyside Way long distance footpath. There is magnificent coastal scenery all along the Banff coast, with easy access to areas such as Glenlivet, Speyside and the Cairngorms.

External links

• 1st Buckie Company Boys' Brigade - Largest UK company
• Census data
• grid reference NJ415655
• Buckie Weather collected from station on the Ice Factory

57.67554°N 2.98249°W / 57.67554; -2.98249