Aberdeenshire and the broader northeast of Scotland — encompassing the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Moray, and the Mearns — produced a distinctive clan tradition that is sometimes overshadowed by the more dramatic stories of the Highland west but is no less rich in history, landscape, and enduring family identity. This is castle country in the truest sense: the northeast holds more castles per square mile than almost any region in Europe, a concentration of tower houses, fortified mansions, and great baronial piles that reflects the density and competitiveness of the landed families who built them across five centuries.
The northeast's clan history was shaped by geography in ways different from the Highland west. The rolling farmland of the Buchan and the Mearns, the river valleys of the Don, the Dee, and the Ythan, and the sheltered coastal harbours of the east created a world of agricultural wealth and mercantile connection that made the northeast families more integrated into the broader Scottish economy than many of their Highland counterparts. But the boundary between Lowland agricultural prosperity and Highland clan culture ran directly through the region, and families like the Gordons and the Forbeses straddled both worlds with considerable skill.
Northeast Clan Names at a Glance
The principal clans and families of Aberdeenshire and the northeast include: Gordon, Forbes, Keith, Fraser (of Philorth), Burnett, Carnegie, Ogilvie, Wishart, Leask, Innes, Lumsden, Leslie, Irvine, Skene, Farquharson and Brodie. If your family name has roots in Aberdeenshire or the northeast, use the search bar above to find clan gifts and heritage products for your surname.
The Gordons: Cock of the North
Clan Gordon was the dominant family of the northeast, their Earls and later Marquesses of Huntly holding the title Cock of the North as an acknowledgement of their regional supremacy. Huntly Castle near the confluence of the Deveron and the Bogie was their principal seat, and the elaborate heraldic carvings on its façade represent some of the finest renaissance decoration in Scotland. The Gordons were Catholic in the post-Reformation period, which brought them into repeated conflict with the Protestant establishment and with the earl of Moray — whose murder by the Gordon chief in 1592 was one of the most dramatic episodes in late sixteenth-century Scottish history.
Forbes, Keith, and the Great Northeast Rivalries
Clan Forbes of Druminnor Castle in Strathdon were the great rivals of the Gordons in the Don valley, their feud with the Gordons one of the most persistent and bloody in northeast Scottish history. The Forbes family were Protestant where the Gordons were Catholic, which gave their long rivalry a religious dimension that added ideological fuel to the territorial and personal animosities that sustained it. Druminnor Castle, one of the oldest surviving tower houses in Scotland, remains in private hands.
Clan Keith were the hereditary Earls Marischal of Scotland, one of the great offices of the Scottish crown. Their seat at Dunnottar Castle, the most dramatically sited of all Scottish castles, perched on a sea stack above the North Sea south of Stonehaven in the Mearns, was where the Scottish crown jewels — the Honours of Scotland — were hidden from Cromwell's army in the 1650s and later smuggled out for safekeeping. The Keith Earls Marischal were Jacobites who lost their earldom after 1715, and the Dunnottar estate passed from the family, though the castle's ruins remain among the most visited in Scotland.
Fraser, Burnett, and the Royal Deeside Families
Clan Fraser of Philorth held Castle Fraser in Aberdeenshire — now one of the finest examples of Scottish baronial architecture in the care of the National Trust for Scotland — distinct from their Inverness-shire kinsmen the Frasers of Lovat. The northeast Frasers represented a different branch of the same family, their history woven into the agricultural and legal life of the Aberdeenshire interior rather than the military drama of the Great Glen. Clan Burnett of Leys held Crathes Castle near Banchory on Royal Deeside, another magnificent National Trust property whose interior preserves some of the finest painted ceilings in Scotland, dating from the late sixteenth century. The Burnetts held the Horn of Leys, said to have been granted by Robert the Bruce, as their most ancient relic.
Carnegie, Ogilvy, and the Families of Angus and the Mearns
Clan Carnegie of Kinnaird Castle in Angus produced the Earls of Southesk, but the name's global resonance comes from a different branch entirely — Andrew Carnegie, born in Dunfermline in 1835 and emigrated to Pennsylvania as a child, became the richest man in the world through the American steel industry and then gave most of his fortune away in one of the most remarkable acts of systematic philanthropy in history. Carnegie libraries, Carnegie Hall, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace — the name became synonymous with a particular vision of what wealth could be used for.
Clan Ogilvie of Airlie Castle in Angus were the Earls of Airlie, their history touching on some of the most dramatic episodes in seventeenth-century Scotland. The burning of Airlie Castle by the Earl of Argyll's forces in 1640, commemorated in one of the most celebrated Scottish ballads — The Bonnie House o' Airlie — gave the Ogilvies a place in the popular tradition of Scottish historical memory that their military and political careers had already warranted. Clan Wishart of Angus and the Mearns are most closely associated in historical memory with George Wishart, the reforming preacher whose burning at St Andrews in 1546 lit the fuse of the Scottish Reformation and whose execution was witnessed by the young John Knox.
Leask, Innes, and the Families of Buchan and Moray
Clan Leask of Buchan were among the older families of the northeast, their name attached to lands in that flat, windswept peninsula between the Don and the sea that was one of the most distinctive agricultural regions in Scotland. Clan Innes of Innes House in Moray held their seat near the Moray coast, their family history running through the medieval ecclesiastical and political life of the northeast. Clan Lumsden held lands in both Berwickshire and Aberdeenshire, their history spanning the eastern lowlands from the Border country to the northeast in a pattern common among families with Norman origins who received grants in different parts of Scotland as royal favour dictated.
The Northeast in the Modern World
The northeast of Scotland sent emigrants across the world in significant numbers, particularly to North America, Australia, and New Zealand, and the names of its great families — Gordon, Forbes, Keith, Fraser, Carnegie, Ogilvie — are found in diaspora communities across the English-speaking world. The Castle Trail, a modern tourism route connecting many of the surviving historic castles of Aberdeenshire, offers one of the best ways to experience the physical legacy of the region's clan families in a landscape that still feels profoundly shaped by their presence.
Aberdeen itself, the Granite City, grew into one of Scotland's great urban centres through the trade, legal practice, and professional life that the northeast's educated families both created and benefited from. The connection between the rural clan tradition and the urban professional world is closer in the northeast than almost anywhere else in Scotland, a reflection of the region's particular combination of agricultural wealth and educational aspiration.
Frequently Asked Questions
What clan names come from Aberdeenshire and the northeast?
The major northeast names are Gordon, Forbes, Keith, Fraser, Burnett, Carnegie, Ogilvie, Innes, Leslie, Irvine, Skene, Leask and Farquharson — the densest castle-building families in Europe.
What does "Cock of the North" mean?
It was the traditional title of the Gordon chiefs, the Marquesses of Huntly, acknowledging their supremacy over the northeast — matched by their one-word Scots motto, Bydand, meaning steadfast. Our Clan Gordon history tells the full story.
Are the Frasers of Aberdeenshire the same as the Frasers of Lovat?
Same name, different branches: the Frasers of Philorth (Aberdeenshire, Castle Fraser) and the Frasers of Lovat (Inverness-shire) share an origin but ran separate histories. Both branches are honoured by the Fraser crest tradition — our Fraser history covers both.
Do northeast clan names have tartans and family crests?
Yes — every family above has its own tartan and crest tradition, from Gordon's stag to Keith's Earl Marischal legacy. Search your surname in the bar at the top of this page to see yours.
Carry a Northeast Name?
If your family carries one of these names, you can bring castle country home: we make family crest woven blankets, mugs, garden flags, ornaments and more for every major northeast name. Start with our dedicated gift guides for Gordon and Fraser, explore the Gordon castles guide, or see how families display their crest at home.
The Heritage Trio — a woven blanket for the sofa, a mug for the morning, a garden flag for the front of the house — keeps a northeast name part of daily life, from the Granite City to wherever the family settled. For the neighbouring regions, see our guides to the Clans of the Highlands, the Clans of Perthshire and the Clans of Fife.
