Brechin

Brechin, a town of Forfarshire, on the left bank of the South Esk, 8½ miles W. of Montrose. Pop. (1851) 6638; (1891) 8955. With Montrose, &c. it returns one member to parliament. Linen and paper are the leading manufactures; bleaching, distilling, and brewing being also carried on. David I. founded a bishopric here about 1150. Part of the cathedral, late First and Second Pointed in style, is now the parish church, at whose south-west angle rises the Round Tower (q.v.) of a Culdee college, similar to the Irish ones, and to the one at Abernethy, the only other example in Scotland. Dating probably from about 983, it is 87 feet high, 25 feet in diameter at the base, and 12½ feet at the top, which is surmounted by a 15th-century conical roof of 25 feet. Brechin Castle, the ancient seat of the Maules, and now of their representative, Arthur Maule Ramsay, fourteenth Earl of Dalhousie (born 1878; succeeded 1887), was taken by Edward I. in 1303 after a twenty days' siege. The town itself was burned by Montrose in 1645; and near it Huntly defeated the rebellious Crawfords in 1452. Dr Thomas Guthrie was a native of Brechin.