SNP councillor calls for town to mark last hanging in Banff of folk hero James Macpherson
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A NORTH-EAST councillor has called for Banff to mark the legend a folk hero whose hanging was the last public execution in the town.
"Banff's Robin Hood", James Macpherson, was executed at the town's Mercat Cross on November 16, 1700.
The 25-year-old outlaw famously sang his lament, composed in jail in the days before his execution, and played then smashed his fiddle at the foot of the gallows.
The story was immortalised by Robert Burns in his song about injustice, "Macpherson's Farewell" or "Macpherson's Rant".
Banff and District SNP councillor Glen Reynolds said the events were "the stuff that films are made of".
Banff café The Broken Fiddle, on Strait Path, takes its name from the legend of the charismatic figure. Inside hangs a painting of the day Macpherson met his end by John Stewart, from Portsoy.
Cllr Reynolds said: "A number of constituents have contacted me about commemorating the last public execution in Banff of the lovable rogue, Jamie or James Macpherson.
"I am keen that we look at ways of formalising this historic event, once we are able to do so safely."
The illegitimate son of laird Macpherson of Invereshie and a traveller girl, Macpherson was a skilful swordsman and a superb fiddler.
Sometimes called "James of the hills", Macpherson and his traveller followers were said to have trampled across the north-east from Banff to Forres, stealing from rich landowners and farmers and giving a share of their spoils to the poor. The lawless gang were believed to have had local support.
He made a fierce enemy of Lord Duff of Braco, who finally snared Macpherson and his men at Saint Rufus Fair in Keith. Macpherson was taken to the Tolbooth in Banff's Low Street, then hanged.
Duff is said to have ordered the Banff clock to be put forward on the day of the hanging, knowing that a pardon was on its way for Macpherson.
Cllr Reynolds said: "Nobody who sits at the Mercat Cross in Low Street or visits The Broken Fiddle café on Strait Path can fail to be struck by the sense of history and tragedy as they look up at the recently restored Tolbooth Hotel, and wonder at those who on that day looked down from there – when it was a prison – at the scene below them.
"The jostling, shouting and fighting crowd of supporters and opponents surrounding the gallows and witnessing the untimely end of the 25-year-old lovable rogue, awaiting a potential pardon that never came, and mocking the process by smashing his fiddle."
He added: "We live with the myths and legends, the places and tales as we romanticise his legend to this day.
"In the aftermath, I like to think that there was something that happened that day which brought about the fact that its like was never seen again in Banff."
Cllr Reynolds is asking locals to send their views and suggestions to cllr.g.reynolds@aberdeenshire.gov.uk, and added: "I like to think that his swagger can still be seen in Banff today, and will endure as Burns put it:
Now farewell light, thou sunshine bright,
And all beneath the sky!
May coward shame distain his name,
The wretch that dares not die!"
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