Portsoy

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PORTSOY

Burgh

Incorporated into : 1975 Banff and Buchan District Council (1996 Aberdeenshire Area Council)

Official blazon

Argent, a lion rampant guardant Gules, armed and langued Azure, holding between his paws a plumb-rule erect Proper.

(Above the Shield is placed a Burghal coronet.)

Origin/meaning

The arms were granted on April 23, 1930.

Portsoy was created a Burgh of Barony in 1550 in favour of Sir Walter Ogilvy of Boyne.

The arms, which have the silver and red colours of Ogilvy, show a lion with a plumb-rule, which was the crest of Ogilvy, Earl of Findlater, who formerly owned the lands of Portsoy and whose castle, now a ruin, was built on a sea-girt rock, between Cullen and Portsoy, about 1455.

Seal of the burgh as used in the 1890s

Community Council

Official blazon

Argent, a lion rampant guardant Gules, armed and langued Azure, holding between his paws a plumb-rule erect Proper.

Above the Shield is placed a Coronet appropriate to a statutory Community Council, videlicet:- a circlet richly chased from which are issuant four thistle leaves (one and two halves visible) and four pine cones (two visible) Or.