A lovely and largely unexplored part of Scotland

THE town of Keith, in the north-east, is now in the Moray Council area, but was traditionally in the county of Banff shire.

Like the former county of Moray, Banff shire has a coastal plain, good for growing grain, and long river valleys stretching south into the Grampian mountains. These draw to themselves much of the rain from the Atlantic, which falls as snow in winter. The melting of the snow in the spring means that there is a steady flow of water in the rivers for much of the year, and this has meant for many years that the area is known for its Scotch whisky distilleries.

The development of this north-east corner was, however, hampered until the 18th century by the scarcity of fuel: there was little peat or wood and no coal. Then from the mid-18th century construction of roads and harbours meant that coal could be imported, and that meant that the development of towns and villages could begin. The local landowners, in introducing improved farming, also laid out new settlements on geometric plans. Of these the largest in Banff shire was ‘New Keith’, laid out by the Earl of Seafield in 1750, on a grid plan, in the valley of the River Isla.

There was a small existing village, which was a burgh of regality under the Abbey of Kinloss and had a church from mediaeval times, dedicated to St Rufus, and associated with Kinloss Abbey. In 1569 the mediaeval church was rebuilt which was in turn replaced in 1819 by the subject of this article.

A fragment of the 16th-century church survives in its churchyard, supporting a memorial to Lady Katherine Rose and her three sons.

To the north-east of the Seafield town a second settlement, now known as Fife Keith was laid out in 1817.

In the mid 1850s the railway from Aberdeen to Inverness passed along the edge of the town, and later branch lines penetrated into neighbouring highland and coastal areas, the station becoming known as Keith Junction. The town became a focal point for a very prosperous whisky distilling industry, The oldest distillery in the town itself is Strathisla Distillery, founded in 1786 as Milton Distillery.

The others are Strathmill, rebuilt from a flour mill in 1791, and Glenkeith, also rebuilt from a corn mill, in 1957 (the first malt whisky distillery in Scotland built since the early 20th century. The other important local industry was woollen manufacture, at the Isla Bank Mills, next to the railway station, originally a flax mill (1805).

It has been converted into business units. Today Keith is the market town for a large rural area, and still a centre for the whisky distilling industry.

The present church of St Rufus was built between 1816 and 1819, probably to accommodate the expansion of the town to the east. It was designed by James Gillespie Graham in what is usually termed the ‘Heritors’ Gothic’ style, with a pinnacled western tower and crenellated wall-heads.

Gillespie Graham was then the most fashionable church architect in Scotland, and this is one of his largest churches. Typically for buildings of this type it has a large horseshoe gallery, bearing the Seafield Arms. An unusual survival internally is a mid-16th century pre- Reformation Sacrament House, a feature characteristic of churches in north-east Scotland. It must have been relocated twice, first from the pre-Reformation church to the 1569 one, and then from that church to the present St Rufus, strongly suggesting a continuing feeling for the ‘Old Religion’…

St Rufus is now linked with the rural parishes of Botriphnie and Grange, in what is a lovely and largely unexplored part of Scotland, full of profound links with a fascinating past.