Duff House at War tells the eventful story of the stately home, now an art gallery and and restored stately home.The house was bombed by the Germans, ironically killing several German prisoners of war. As well as a prison, the house was used as an internment centre for foreigners at the start of the war, and to house Allied soldiers.

Duff House manager Rachel Kennedy is very excited about the new book, saying that it makes a significant contribution to local and national history. Duff House at War includes 40 pages of photographs, and includes memories of wartime residents. It is written by Allan Burnett.

Banffshire Coast Tourist Partnership were recently awarded £35,000 funding from a combination of the Rural Tourism Business Support project, the VisitScotland Growth Fund and Aberdeenshire Council.

Over the next 18 months, tourism businesses along the Banffshire Coast will have the opportunity to participate in several significant marketing initiatives, thanks to a recent funding award of £35,000.

The funding, from a combination of the Rural Tourism Business Support project, the VisitScotland Growth Fund and Aberdeenshire Council, will enable the Banffshire Coast Tourism Group to further develop and market the Banffshire Coast as a highly attractive visitor destination.

Roger Goodyear, Chair of the Banffshire Coast Tourism Partnership, commented: "This award is a fantastic opportunity to promote our area to both first time and returning visitors, and follows on from a very successful short marketing campaign run at the beginning of this year which resulted in visits to our website (www.banffshirecoast.com) rising by more than 1500%."

The four marketing initiatives fall under two themes - Outdoor and Ancestral.  A full-colour 48-page pocket Area Guide, to be distributed throughout Scotland and the Banffshire area, will contain high-quality imagery and editorial content to encourage both visits to and wider exploration of the area.  The other three initiatives will focus on the area's strengths of Marine Life, Walking and Birdwatching, and Ancestral.  They will all involve a combination of activities, including the creation of new sections for the website, e-flyer campaigns to targeted market segments, PR trips and familiarisation visits, as well as social media campaigns.  All four initiatives will provide tourism businesses in the area excellent opportunities to advertise their own individual offering.

Roger Goodyear commented further:  "The Banffshire Coast has a wide range of tourism attractions and services, but these have never been brought together in a way which is 'visitor friendly'.  The planned campaigns will draw all of these elements together in one place and promote comprehensive packages and itineraries to those with these specific interests - for the very first time.  We will be showing visitors just how they can spend their time in our area - whether one day, a few days or longer.  By focussing on the web and social media, we will be able to achieve more significant results than the traditional advertising routes which are out of the reach of our budget, as well as utilising the most up-to-date promotional tools.  We are very grateful to our 3 funding partners - without whom we would not be in a position to make this step change in tourism on the Banffshire Coast."

For more information, please contact:  Zillah Jamieson, Director, Banffshire Coast Tourism Partnership Limited; 01542 840314; zillahj@btinternet.com

Great news for the Banffshire Coast Tourism Partnership. Our new mobile website is now live on-line, and available to all who use their mobile phones to access the internet.

This is the future! It means that folk in their cars, or in the street can find out where to go, where to shop, where to eat, where to stay etc in our area, just with a few clicks on their mobiles.

The Banffshire Coast mobile website includes some minor mods to make it easier to use and to read on small  phone screens.

Thanks go to our IT gurus at blue square for creating it.

If you don’t have an internet enabled  phone, you can get a look at the mobile website on:  http://m.banffshirecoast.com/  To see how it actually  looks on a phone screen, make your viewing window much narrower. (Of course, it is much smaller on a phone too.)

An empty shop in Banff's Strait Path has been re-opened as a gallery and exhibition space, used by local artists.

Artists include illustrator Jimsin Vogel, metalworker Barry Twain from Gardenstown, and wildlife artistr Katy Rewston from Alvah, near Banff.

The rest of the shop will be used as a workspace by local film-maker and animator Dave Chisnall.

A replica of a 19th-century fishing boat will play a part in celebrations to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee.  The Obair-Na-Ghaol - Gaelic for Labour of Love - will be made ready for the event by the Portsoy-based Scottish Traditional Boat Festival group; the boat is a replica of the scaffie Gratitude which was a traditional herring drifter with a dipping lug sail.  The original was built in Portknockie in 1896 and Obair-Na-Ghaol was launched exactly 100 years later after being built at Portsoy.  The vessel will be made ready for the event by volunteers from the festival's restoration and training project.  The humble wooden vessel will join a flotilla on the Thames in London this summer for a spectacular river pageant.  About 1,000 boats from throughout Britain and the Commonwealth will assemble to pay tribute to the Queen. 

The management of Duff House will be transferred to Historic Scotland, who will also become responsible for the 25 staff.  Since 1992, Duff House has been run as a partnership by Aberdeenshire Council, Historic Scotland and the National Galleries of Scotland.  Duff House had been threatened with closure over the winter months; however, it is hoped that this move will be the best way of securing and developing Duff House in the future.

A former stables block is the focus of plans for a £200,000 development at Banff Castle community centre.  The aim is to produce a cultural practice and performance area while preserving a part of Banff's buildings heritage.  Banff Community Association runs the castle - which is a mansion house - as a centre for local leisure and activity groups.  Both levels of the two-storey stables block will be used for the folklore centre and there are also plans for a cafe with access to a walled garden. 

An exhibition of traditional craft skills will be a major part of the annual COAST Arts Festival at Banff and Macduff in May 2012.  Banff and Buchan Arts Forum is now appealing for entries for Show Your Hand which will showcase traditional pursuits from ceramics to leather work and enamelling to blacksmithing.  This will be a major exhibition for the Festival and an important way to revealing the skills that are being lost.

The Banff Preservation and Heritage Society is looking to bring one of the town's oldest existing artefacts back home.  A replica of the Mercat Cross now stands at the Low Street Plainstones; however the Society wants to bring the rare original (currently stored by the North East Scotland Preservation Trust) to the town's museum.  The Mercat Cross dates back to the 16th century and it was erected where the Biggar Fountain on the corner of Low Street now stands today.  In 1767 it was removed from the spot because of its size and interference with traffic, and its custody was given to the Earl of Fife.  He erected it on a hill at Sandyhill Road before it was re-sited at the Plainstones in 1900.  The base at Sandyhill Road remains and is a doocot.  In 1994, the Society created a replica of the cross and the original was then put in storage.  The Cross is a very rare piece in Scotland as it is one of the few remaining pre-Reformation crosses.

A voluntary group of local residents, artists and community organisations are now hard at work preparing for COAST 2012.  The 5th COAST Festival will take place from Friday 25th May 2012 to Sunday 27th May 2012. 

The programme will contain a range of events, with the theme for the core events being "The Creative Individual".  The Festival will be presenting experienced artists, art students, the work of traditional artisans and the often unseen work of the home-based creator.  The "Show Your Hand" exhibition will feature artworks and artifacts showing traditional artisan skills, from ceramics and leatherwork, to enamelling to smithing.  The Festival will also have family fun events, including the ever popular sandcastle competition, the spectacular duck race, and a programme of hands-on workshops for all ages.  Brochures will be available at the end of April.

If you want to create an event, please contact the organisers at info@coastfestival.org.uk.

A treasure trove of wartime memorabilia has gone on display at Duff House, Banff.  The exhibition includes historic documents, newspaper cuttings and artefacts from World War II.  A range of interpretive boards have also been set up to explain what life was like for the north-east during the 1930s and 1940s.  Duff House itself played a significant role in the war as a military base and prisoner of war camp.  The 18th-century house had been used as a hotel and sanatorium when it was handed over to the UK Government in 1940.  Initially it became an internment camp for people living in Britain who were believed to be a threat.  It was later used to hold prisoners of war.  In July 1940 it was attacked by a lone Heinkel HeIII bomber whose pilot had mistaken it for an allied base.  Six PoWs were killed in the raid.  The house was later used as a base for Scottish, English, Norwegian and French troops until the war ended.

A blanket invitation has gone out to local tourism-related businesses to the Duff House Open Day on Thursday 29th March - offering free all-day entry to the house and its grounds.  Special activities on the day include a journey into Banffshire's Jacobite history with the Alba Adventure Company, private guided tours of Duff House and VIP previews of this summer's 2012 ARTIST ROOM exibition.  Attendees will be given comprehensive information on Duff House's summer programme and special events, and a chance to win a free family ticket to an open-air show in the Duff House grounds featuring either a performance of Roald Dahl's hilarious children's story, "the Twits" or Gilbert & Sullivan's classic operetta "HMS Pinafore".  Guests will be welcome to bring along publicity material for their own businesses and encouraged to exchange views with fellow business people.  Places should be booked as soon as possible either by e-mail to duff.house@aberdeenshire.gov.uk or by calling Jo Edwards on 01261 813000.

A new team of creative talents has come forward to ensure one of Scotland's biggest art events on the calendar goes ahead this year.  A new group of volunteers has stepped forward to ensure the event continues to allow artists to showcase their work.  The nine-day event, which has grown in popularity since it was launched in 2009, gives art fans the chance to see painters, sculptors, silversmiths and textile makers at work in their own studio.  Hundreds of artists take part each year, with studios and galleries in Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen and Moray opening their doors from 15th to 23rd September 2012.  Artists are being urged to submit their work now; the deadline for entries in 13th April 2012.

The COAST organisers have won a popular vote for the best festival in the area for 2011.  The charitable body that supports cultural organisations in the North-east, Creative Cultures Scotland, conducted a survey in 2011 to find the best events and projects, as voted by the public, and COAST came out top in the category of festivals.  Representatives from COAST picked up their certificate at a presentation in Aberdeen.  This year's festival will feature performances, exhibitions and entertainments in Banff and Macduff.

Turriff and District Heritage Society has announced plans to develop and improve the popular Auld Post Office museum.  The building's tenancy has been secured for the next five years and the museum's future assured.  The Society is committed to developing the Museum, and has also been given responsibility for Turriff's Session Cottage museum. 

Organisers of Banff and Macduff's annual COAST event are planning a huge installation featuring more than 200 custom-made flags.  The piece will take pride of place at Banff Castle.  The theme of the festival is the creative individual, so the organisers are providing more than 200 blank flags that groups will be getting together to decorate.  Locals are being challenged to design a flag that best represents them or their families.  The flags will be fixed to a forest of bamboo canes.  Meanwhile 20 giant flags are being decorated by the same team behind last year's colourful umbrella project.  This year's event runs from 25th to 27th May, starting with an opening ceremony at Macduff Town Hall.