The Wrack, Banff

The Wrack is a mid-18th century building, originally constructed for use in the local flax and linen industry. It is a broad, rectangular, two-storey and attic range with a wheelhouse projecting from the east elevation. The building is constructed of harl-pointed rubble with tooled ashlar margins. The north and south return gables have paired first-floor windows and large attic windows, without dormers. Corniced end stacks rise from the roof, which is slate covered. A single-storey, roofless rubble wheelhouse projects from the east elevation, and a later single-storey, lean-to extension is set against the south gable.

The ground floor interior has been gutted, although fragments of simple moulded plaster ceiling cornice survive on the first floor.

Photographs from around 1900, held in Banff Library, show the wheelhouse and undershot wheel, now roofless. The building’s breadth and large gable attic windows, designed to illuminate the garret workplace, are notable features. It is situated close to the River Deveron, which supplied water for industrial processes and was diverted to the visible mill lade to the south.

The building likely served as a corf house, or salmon station, after the flax and linen industry declined in the early 19th century. A Town Clerk’s list from around 1820 identifies The Wrack, also known as Rack and Rake, as a principal salmon fishing station with a slate-covered corf house, reflecting the commercial prosperity of Deveron salmon fishings.