Brechin Castle is a largely 17th, 18th and 19th century mansion however parts of an earlier castle are incorporated in its south wing.

In the 12th century the lordship of Brechin was granted by William I to his brother, David, 8th Earl of Huntingdon, from whom it later passed to his illegitimate son, Henry, who became known as Henry of Brechin. Henry married Juliana de Cornhill and their descendants took the surname Brechin. While it is likely there was a castle here at this time, the first explicit mention of the “castro de Brechine” doesn’t come until a document of 1267 when Henry and Juliana’s son, Sir William of Brechin, founded the chapel of Saint Mary the Virgin of Brechin, known as Maison Dieu.

The first castle is thought to have stood on a motte and was the seat of the barony of Brechin, an early barony in Angus. It stands on high rocky cliffs above a bend in the River South Esk and may have been built to protect the only fording point on the lower section of the river.

In an addition to the protection offered to the south by the river there were natural ditches to the north and east which are thought to have been filled with water. It’s not clear if a ditch to the west was natural or artificial and it was later filled in, possibly as a result of extensive landscape alterations in the early 18th century.

There is little trace of the old castle left visible, however a long barrel-vaulted room at the south-west corner of the ground floor may possibly date back to the 13th century. It is said to have once been the kitchens, but was converted into a porter’s lodge in the early 18th century and is now used as a dining room.

Brechin Castle played an important role in the First War of Independence as it was where John Balliol resigned the realm of Scotland, its people and their homages, to Edward I of England in July 1296. The following year William Wallace retook the castle. Edward besieged the castle in July 1303 and captured it after 20 days. The Captain of Brechin Castle, Sir Thomas Maule, second son of Sir Peter Maule of Panmure and Benvie and Christina de Valognes, was killed on the battlements by a stone thrown by a siege engine known as the War Wolf.

Sir William of Brechin’s son, Sir David of Brechin, also paid homage to Edward I in 1296 but changed his allegiances several times over the following two decades. In April 1320 he signed the Declaration of Arbroath but in August of the same year was executed for not revealing his knowledge of Sir William de Soules’ plot to kill Robert the Bruce.

Robert granted the Brechin estates to Sir David Barclay of Carny, who was married to Sir David of Brechin’s daughter, Margaret of Brechin. Barclay was killed in 1350 and succeeded by their son, also David. The younger David died in 1368 leaving a young daughter, Margaret. In 1378 Margaret married Walter Stewart, son of Robert II, however he was attainted and executed in 1437 for his part in the murder of James I.

Margaret had died in 1404 and Walter’s sons predeceased their father so Sir Thomas Maule of Panmure laid claim to the Brechin estates. He was the grandson of Marion Fleming whose mother, Jean Barclay, was a daughter of Sir David Barclay, and Margaret of Brechin. However in 1438 the estates were annexed to the Crown due to Stewart’s forfeiture and granted in liferent to various people while Sir Thomas’s ancestors were granted some parts of the former Brechin estates.

One of the people granted the estates was Sir Thomas Erskine of Kirkbuddo, better known as Sir Thomas Erskine of Haltoun, Royal Secretary to James V, who in 1527 was made chamberlain of the lands and the “old castle of Brechin”. As a reward for garrisoning Tantallon Castle in 1533 he was in 1534 granted the lands and lordship of Brechin and Navar by the King and told add a hall and other extensions, work which was completed by 1541 and which left Erskine indebted to William Wood to the tune of 400 marks.

In 1550 Erskine granted the lands and barony of Brechin to John Erskine, 5th Lord Erskine. Following his death in 1555 Brechin presumably passed to his son, also John, who in 1565 was granted the earldom of Mar, as Marie Stewart, wife of John Erskine, 2nd Earl of Mar, was resident at the castle in 1593 and in 1611 and 1627 drew up inventories of the castle’s contents.

Brechin Castle was captured by George Gordon, 5th Earl of Huntly, in 1570 for Mary Queen of Scots. Huntly appointed two Captains, Couts and Muir, then departed north to raise more troops. In his absence the Regent Lennox besieged and captured the castle and hanged the two Captains and several soldiers in front of it. The castle was recaptured by Huntly’s brother, Sir Adam Gordon of Auchindoun, the following year.

The 2nd Earl of Mar died in 1634 and in the same year Patrick Maule, Sheriff Principal of Forfarshire, a former Gentleman of the Bedchamber and descendent of Sir Thomas Maule of Panmure, bought the lordship of Brechin. In 1639 he married, as his third wife, Mary Erskine, a daughter of the 2nd Earl and Marie Stewart. Maule was a Royalist who fought for Charles I in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and as a result Montrose’s troops plundered Brechin Castle in September 1644.

Patrick was elevated to the peerage as the 1st Earl of Panmure in 1646, died in 1661 and was succeeded by his son, grandson and two grandsons. The second grandson, James Maule, 4th Earl of Panmure, succeeded his brother in 1687 and almost immediately set about improving Brechin Castle, with the King’s Master Plasterer, James Baine, commissioned for the restoration. The Earl however ended up in dispute with Baine and in 1696 Alexander Edward took over the work in what was hist first architectural commission.

A forecourt was constructed, flanked by a pair of pavilions (later removed), and in 1697 a range of offices was built to the north-east of the castle. The following year work began on a north-west wing intended to complete the inner side of the forecourt, however this stopped in 1701 when Edward was sent on a tour of London, Paris and the Low Countries by the Earls of Panmure, Mar and other nobles to study the architecture there. Upon his return in 1702 work continued with a remodelling and continuation of the north-west wing. Work may have been carried out on the south-east wing at a similar time as the date 1703 is carved on an internal lintel in what was the kitchen wing.

Work on the north-west wing was completed in 1711, three years after Edward’s death, taking the form of a three storey eleven bay red sandstone ashlar façade with the centre three windows raised and pedimented, flanked by circular angular towers topped with conical roofs. Within the pediment a carved tympanum carries the arms of the Maule Earls of Panmure on the left and those of the Maules quartered with those of Hamilton on the right, the 4th Earl’s wife being Lady Margaret Hamilton, daughter of William Douglas, Duke of Hamilton, and Anne Hamilton, 3rd Duchess of Hamilton.

The 4th Earl fought at the Battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715 and was captured but escaped to France in 1716. He was attainted and as a result forfeited the Panmure title and estates, which were bought by the York Buildings Company for £60,400. The 4th Earl’s brother, Harry Maule of Kelly, who but for the attainder would have been the 5th Earl following his brother’s death in 1723, managed to obtain long leases of the Panmure and Brechin estates upon his return to Scotland following the general pardon of Jacobites in 1719.

Harry’s son, William Maule, who had grown up in France, had a distinguished military career in Scotland and in 1743 he was created Baron Maule, Viscount Maule and Earl Panmure in the Peerage of Ireland. In 1764 he bought the Maule estates, with the exception of Belhelvie, for £49,157 18s. 4d., and so Brechin Castle returned to the family.

William died unmarried in 1782 and since his sister, Jean, had married George, Lord Ramsay, the eldest son of William, 6th Earl of Dalhousie, his estates were inherited by his nephew, George Ramsay, 8th Earl of Dalhousie, and so Brechin Castle passed into the family of Ramsay of Dalhousie (although under the terms of the will George assumed by Royal licence the surname Maule).

Following the death of the 8th Earl of Dalhousie in 1787 Brechin and the wider Maule estates were inherited by his second son, William Ramsay Maule, who employed Alexander Laing to remodel the castle’s interiors and rebuild the north wing of the courtyard, with a pend into the courtyard within, between 1795 and 1797.

A formal walled garden was built to the south-west of the castle in 1802 on a quatrefoil plan. Standing within the north-eastern quarter of the garden is a 17th century sundial featuring eight hollow dials with ball finial, mounted upon a 19th century square base with octagonal shaft, brought to Brechin from Panmure House.

In 1831 Maule was elevated to the peerage as Baron Panmure of Brechin and Navar and died in 1852. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Fox Maule, who, between 1853 and 1863, was responsible for extensive works under John Henderson of Edinburgh, until his death in 1862, and subsequently David Bryce. The north wing of the courtyard was extended and raised to three storeys, the south wing was remodelled with a long gallery on the first floor, a square tower added to the south wall, and the interiors of all but the west wing were remodelled. Fine plaster ceilings were installed using moulds made from the now-demolished early 17th century ceilings in the Old Palace at Bromley-by-Bow in London.

Fox Maule, by then Fox Maule-Ramsay, 11th Earl of Dalhousie, died in 1874, in the same room in Brechin Castle in which he had been born. Having had no children he was succeeded by his cousin, George Ramsay, as 12th Earl who died in 1880 and was succeeded by his eldest son, John Ramsay, as 13th Earl, who died at the age of 40 in 1887. The 13th Earl was succeeded by his 9 year old son, Arthur Ramsay, who in 1903 married Lady Mary Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby.

Between 1903 and 1904 the last major alterations to Brechin Castle took place, commissioned by Arthur and his wife, when the interiors of the south wing were remodelled to create a grand set of reception rooms. Various more minor works have since been carried out by subsequent members of the Ramsays of Dalhousie who still own Brechin Castle to this day.