Malcolm Appleby | The Banchory Bangle

Each year Malcolm engraves a gold bangle that is raffled for the charity Children First, Scotland. Known as the Banchory Bangle, these bangles have become some of his most well known and loved pieces, the form allowing him to experiment with different styles and themes, typically featuring local flora and fauna. The first bangles were made at the Banchory Show when Malcolm lived at Crathes on Deeside, and were offered for sale at the end of the day to raise funds for Children First. A gold bangle was first made to mark Malcolm’s 21st year of living in Scotland.

Now the bangles are raffled each year raising much needed funds for the charity and giving everyone the chance of winning an exceptional example of Malcolm’s work. A new Banchory Bangle is an eagerly awaited event with silver and bronze versions of the bangle available to purchase after the raffle has been drawn. There are now over thirty Banchory Bangle designs in existence.

The Scottish Gallery pays tribute to the Banchory Bangle by highlighting a selection of the remarkable designs Appleby has created over the years, in the exhibition A Celebration of the Banchory Bangle. Aberdeen Art Gallery is curating a major museum exhibition next year to celebrate the Banchory Bangle and to honour the artist’s 80th year.

Not yet for sale…

The 2025 Banchory Bangle is Bunnies & Brambles, created with Malcolm’s characteristic wit and features a flowery background with rabbits peeping out between the foliage, in a style reminiscent of the Arts and Crafts movement. This will be the 48th bangle made by Malcolm for Children 1st Scotland.

Purchase your raffle ticket for the draw here for a chance to win the 2025 bangle.

The Hedgerow Bangle was inspired by local hedgerows of Malcolm’s childhood, a design that encapsulates the marvellous entanglement of flora and fauna found in hedgerows. An important habitat for wildlife and a reminder of the vital part that nature plays in our well-being. Alongside hawthorn and hazel leaves, there are berries and nuts, wild roses and an assortment of birds and beasties including a ladybird, ground beetle, comma butterfly, wood mice, hedge sparrow and a willow warbler. The inside of the bangle features one of our favourite nut foragers, the red squirrel!

The Sneezewort Bangle was created to celebrate the unsung heroes of biodiversity. The Sneezewort is a creamy white “electric” daisy-like wildflower, so-called because of its peppery qualities. A feature of late summer species-rich grasslands and an important flowering plant for pollinators. Britain has lost 98% of its wildflower meadows over the last 50 years – precious habitats that are under threat from changing land-use and agrochemicals. Now identified as one of the key habitats for conservation, wildflower-rich meadows support a wide array of wildlife and play an important role in storing carbon. The inside of the bangle features lichen – a key indicator of healthy biodiversity.

The Birch Tree Bangle features a Song Thrush perched in the tree’s crown on one finial, and a Nuthatch on the trunk of the other. Inspired by the borders of medieval illuminated manuscripts, the branches of the birch tree fold inwards, interlacing along the length of the bangle. Song Thrushes love to sing in the uppermost branches of a tree, while the Nuthatch, on the increase locally, likes to run down trees headfirst searching for insects! This one has been surprised by another recent arrival to these woodlands, a trio of delightful brown and white spotted Speckled Wood butterflies. Malcolm has chosen golden Chanterelles as the motif for the inside of the bangle, a very welcome feature of the local woodlands.

The 2021 bangle, the 45th Banchory Bangle, is the Autumn Ginkgo Leaf, featuring layers of these distinctive leaves from an extraordinary tree, a symbol of wellbeing and a fitting subject for this year of pandemic recovery.

Featuring antlers from the majestic red deer, alongside rowan leaves and berries – a mystical tree that is associated with the protection of our homes. Antlers & Rowan is available in silver and bronze.

A watery theme for 2019, the Falls of Feugh is a famous waterfall near Banchory in Aberdeenshire. The engraving on the bangles is particularly ‘frothy’ and has been interpreted in three different splashy versions.

The Leafy Lane Bangle is a meandering wavy form, with deeply raised and overlaid leaves and tiny flowers, much as you would see them on the forest floor in Autumn.

The Yew Tree Bangle is an organic form that suggests the dense foliage of the tree. Through the years he has been inspired by the formal gardens of the Crathes Castle, famous for their ancient yew hedges. Here in Grandtully, we are not far from the reputedly oldest tree in Europe, the Fortingall Yew. The Yew Bangle is available in two versions, one side featuring dense foliage and the other a closer view of the leaves entangled with birds and berries.

The Heron Bangle features the elegant river bird, bending down with a fish caught between its beak and legs. The unusual asymmetric form blends the feathers of the heron with its watery environment.

The 2015 bangle features this most enchanting and elusive of water creates. “I saw my first otter on the mill pond at Crathes whilst brown trout fishing – something I will never forget. I was intrigued by the shining droplets of water streaming off its fur.” The shape of the bangle is like the flowing water of a burn and the sinuous form of the otter is combined with water lilies and the odd wee water beastie.

This year’s design was inspired by the garden, and features a crowd of chirruping little sparrows perched and peeping through holly leaves, dotted with ladybirds and caterpillars, butterflies and an interloping blue tit.

Malcolm started engraving nearly 60 years ago and his first skill was traditional gun engraving. He returned to this style for the 2013 bangle, giving the design a 21st century twist by using large and fine scroll designs, with a carved quilted surface on one side and large scrolls with a background of fine scroll on the other side. To give authenticity to the design the original model was engraved into steel.

A narrow bangle that features a lovely raised texture of small forest flowers and leaves, with a few forest creatures, including stag and doves, just seen between the foliage.

Malcolm’s love of trees originates in childhood; the trees and hedges in his parents’ garden, and the ancient oak trees on nearby common land all fired his imagination. Our garden is bounded by an oak wood, home to squirrels, birds and insects, which the Oak Leaf & Acorn bangle commemorates with its delicate design of intertwining leaves and acorns.

The Butterfly Bangle is a delightful explosion of different fanciful butterflies, inspired by word play and textile design. So the Peacock butterfly has peacock eyes, the Swallowtail has tiny swallows on its wings and there is even a miniature willow pattern… Malcolm calls it the patchwork butterfly bangle. The underside, which is available as an alternative bangle, is a dense carpet of may flowers, the gorgeous flower of the Hawthorn tree.

The Cat Bangle uses the interlacing zoomorphic style of early medieval art to portray two pussy cats, their cheeky heads with tongues poking out forming the bangle’s beast head finials!

The 2008 bangle was created to mark 40 years in business and celebrates the Scottish rose. A pierced and engraved bangle, the roses are placed to give the impression of a mass of wild roses. The original gold version featured 40 tiny Elie rubies (garnets from the Fife coast).

Two intertwined peacocks are the design for this bangle, a small tribute to a pair of birds who had temporary residence with us at Grandtully. The finials feature the magnificent tail feathers of the birds with their characteristically graphic ‘eye’ markings.

One of the most popular bangles, the Primrose Bangle features 13 flower heads, known in the north east as the ‘Spinkie’, and a delightful harbinger of Spring. Created like a flower-daisy chain, the bangle is also available as a version with 18ct gold beads in the centre of each flower.

The gean, also known as the wild cherry, is a lovely tree with Spring blossoms that stand out in the local woodland. Wood pigeons and doves delight in the fruit of these trees, and often make their nests in the high tree tops. Two doves face each other seeming to fly among the flowers.

The Kelpie is the mythical Scottish river horse, a supernatural creature that appears in animal form, a water spirit usually seen in the form of a young horse on a river bank. It is described as the “personification of the sudden blast of wind or of whirlwind which sweeps over the surface of the lakes and pools… of the Highlands”.

Another popular bangle, the King Bee and Apple Blossom Bangle holds many delights, not least the various bees (and one sneaky wasp!) buzzing amongst the flowers. The title is tongue-in-cheek, and refers to a bee on one of the finials, wearing a crown and dark glasses.

Two narrow bangles were made this year (2002), celebrating some of the small wild flowers that grow in abundance here in our garden. The Heart’s Ease, an exquisite little multicoloured flower, better know perhaps as the wild pansy, and Herb Robert, a type of prolific wild geranium that finds a ready home in walls and rock gardens.

A striking bangle featuring a tawny owl face-on, it’s wings outstretched to form the finials of the bangle. Wing feathers blend in with forest leaves, creating a haunting image.

A bangle that commemorates this glorious fish, two of which are shown swimming in the frothy river spume, their distinctive tails forming the bangle’s finials.

Featuring the interlacing Luckenbooth hearts surrounded by the Scottish national flower, the Thistle!

A pierced and engraved bangle that highlights the distinctive hawthorn leaf form against a tiny version of the tree’s flowers, better known as May blossom.

One of the first Spring woodland flowers, this is a delightful and subtle bangle that celebrates this delicate star-like plant.

The first bangle to be cast from the original gold, the Wren & Ivy Bangle depicts a charming scene of the tiny birds darting around amongst the entangled ivy on a wall – a typical picture of this little woodland and garden visitor.

Explore A Celebration of the Banchory Bangle here

Purchase your raffle ticket for the draw here for a chance to win the 2025 bangle