Clan Brodie

Clan Brodie
Brothaigh
Crest: A right hand holding a bunch of arrows all Proper
Motto	Unite
Profile
District	Moray
Plant badge	Periwinkle
Chief
Alexander Brodie of Brodie
The 27th Chief of Clan Brodie
Historic seat	Brodie Castle

Clan Brodie is a Scottish clan whose origins are uncertain. The first known Brodie chiefs were the Thanes of Brodie and Dyke in Morayshire. The Brodies were present in several clan conflicts, and during the civil war were ardent covenanters. They resisted involvement in the Jacobite uprisings, and the chief's family later prospered under the British Empire in colonial India.

Early references to Brodie were written as Brochy, Brothy, Brothie, Brothu, Brode. Various meanings to the name Brodie have been advanced, but given the Brodies uncertain origin, and the varying ways Brodie has been pronounced/written, these remain but suppositions. Some of the suggestions that have been advanced as to the meaning of the name Brodie are:

The origins of the Brodie clan are mysterious. Much of the early Brodie records were destroyed when Lewis Gordon, 3rd Marquess of Huntly pillaged and burnt Brodie Castle in 1645. It is known that the Brodies were always about since records began. From this it has been presumed that the Brodies are ancient, probably of Pict ancestry, referred to locally as the ancient Moravienses. The historian Dr. Ian Grimble suggested the Brodies were an important Pictish family and advanced the possibility of a link between the Brodies and the male line of the Pictish Kings.

The lands of Brodie {Map} are between Morayshire and Nairnshire, on the modern border that separates the Scottish Highlands and Moray. In the time of the Picts, this location was at the heart of the Kingdom of Moravia. Early references show that the Brodie lands to be governed by a Tòiseach, later to become Thane. Part of the Brodie lands were originally Temple Lands, owned by the order of the Knights Templar. It is uncertain if the Brodies took their name from the lands of Brodie, or that the lands were named after the clan.