Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 19 on 20/3/2005.

This article is 41 months old and some information provided may be time sensitive. Please check all details of events, tours, opening times and other information before travelling or making arrangements.

Brodie’s prime site

Charles Douglas visits the seat of the Brodie family, Brodie Castle at Forres in Moray

The Brodies of Moray are believed to have been one of the original Celtic tribes rewarded with lands by King Malcolm IV of Scotland in the 12th century.

The name, originally “Brothie”, meaning “people of the ditch or mire,” became “Brodie” in the 16th century, and it is thought that the ditch which ran from Brodie Castle to the village of Dyke, may have produced this name. The late Ninian Brodie of Brodie was of the opinion and the other popular theory, that his family were directly descended from the Pictish King Brude, unlikely.

Over the centuries, the Brodies proved to be a steady race, if not heavily involved with the greater moments in Scotland’s history.

The 15th Laird signed the first National Covenant in 1638 and later resolved and ‘determined in the strength of the Lord, to eschew and avoid all employment under Cromwell.’ In 1649, he was chosen as one of the Commissioners sent to the Hague to treat with Charles II, but his involvement with this cause brought him considerable financial embarrassment and he died a disillusioned man.

In the 18th century, the Brodies supported the ruling House of Hanover against the exiled Jacobites, thereby avoiding the repercussions which crippled so many of the Highland clans. At the same time, Alexander, 19th Brodie of Brodie, was appointed Lord Lyon King of Arms in 1727.

Representing the ‘very presence of the Monarch’ must have gone to his head rather too significantly as he died leaving massive debts.

Providentially, one of h.....

To read the rest of this article you can buy this issue or subscribe to Scotland Magazine to have every issue delivered direct to your door.

By Charles Douglas

Section : Historic Houses

Page number : 14