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.

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.

Buckie High School [1] is located in Buckie on West Cathcart Street. Directly opposite from the original and still functioning old school building is Cluny Primary School (Buckie Primary School until 1974.) There are three further primary schools in the town - Millbank Primary School on McWilliam Crescent in the newer mid-southern part of Buckie, St. Peter's RC Primary School in Buckpool and Portessie Primary School. Additional primary schools in Portgordon, Findochty, Portknockie and Cullen contribute to the roll of Buckie High School.

Industry

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. 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 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.

Railways

At one time Buckie had excellent rail connections with the rest of North East Scotland. The Great North of Scotland Railway as laid out in the 1850s still serves the Aberdeen to Inverness route. This construction did not reach the coast until Nairn and various branch lines were built to link the peripheral areas to the mainline service. The Moray Coast Railway was also constructed by GNSR and the part of it that served Buckie, opening in 1886, ran from Cairnie near Keith down to the coast at Portsoy and then swung west through Cullen, Portnockie and Findochty reaching its first stop in Buckie at Portessie. This station was built directly on top of the cliff and commanded panoramic views over the Strathlene Hotel, Strathlene outdoor swimming pool and beach and onward to the Moray Firth. One mile to the west was Buckie Station which was located below the cliff and virtually across the street from Buckie Fish Market. One mile further west stood Buckpool Station and from there the line continued due west to Portgordon and onward to Spey Bay before crossing the River Spey and swinging inland to rejoin the mailine service at Elgin. Buckie was served by these three railway stations until 1968 when the line was finally closed.

Portessie was also terminus to the Buckie and Portessie Branch of the Highland Railway. This line was opened in 1884 and provided a direct rail link “up the hill” to Keith. The line ran westwards from Portessie but remained on top of the cliff and swung south to stop at Buckie Highland Station before continuing to Rathven. It then turned westwards again to Drybridge and made another sweep to the south as it passed Enzie and then headed uphill, over the Enzie Braes, to Keith. This link was relatively short-lived and was closed in 1915 except for a freight service between Buckie and Portessie which closed in 1944.

Leisure

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.

Adjacent to Buckie High School is Victoria Park, home of Buckie Thistle Football Club. The go-ahead board has extensively developed the stadium in recent years and a function suite was built within the perimeter of the ground so that match-goers can now enjoy more sophisticated licenced and catering facilities pre- and post-match at the match venue.

Near the southern edge of town on High Street lies Linzee Gordon Park. This is home to Buckie Cricket Club which has a very fine history with numerous McAllan North of Scotland Cricket Association League titles in recent years (four in the past six seasons to be specific) on top of various league and cup wins in the 1990s including two wins in the prestigious Scottish Cricket Union Small Clubs Cup. BCC buit a modern pavilion to replacing their aging home and this was opened in June 1998. LGP, as it is often abbreviated locally, also has a municipal pavilion for football use in the park.

Bowling is a popular pastime in Buckie and the town boasts two greens. Buckie Bowling Club is on North High Street and Low Street with attractive views over the Moray Firth from the clubhouse. Victoria Bowling Club sits on West Church Street adjacent to Victoria Bridge and the Buckie Burn flowing below.

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