Scottish Clans - Clan GALBRAITH

SCOTTISH CLANS - GALBRAITH


MOTTO FROM ADVERSITY THE GREATER SATISFACTION	CLAN TARTAN GALBRAITH

The name Galbraith is associated with the early Britons whose territory was the area of Strathclyde, with its capital Dumbarton. It is thought that early chiefs were members of the royal family of Strathclyde.

The Galbraith clan can be traced back to the 12th century with the first recorded chief being Gilchrist Brechnach. He married the granddaughter of the 1st Earl of Lennox, another of the early royal families of Strathclyde, and there began an association with the two clans which was to last until the 17th century. In the 13th century the clan stronghold was Inchgalbraith at Loch Lomond; however in 1320 a branch of the family acquired Culcreuch near Fintry in Stirlingshire. Later that century the same branch inherited the chiefship and thereafter the family seat was Culreuch.

The association with the Lennox clan meant that the Galbraith clan’s destiny was often influenced by the other. James I, on returning from imprisonment in England, took revenge on those clans which had not been supportive and this included Lennox. The chief of the time is reported to have led raids against the king and then had to flee with his kinsmen to Kintyre and Gigha. In the 16th century the 17th Chief, Robert was renowned for his misdeeds and the misuse of his power to pursue personal vendettas. He finally flew to Ireland, sometime before 1642, after being proclaimed a rebel, where he died some ten years later.

The clan died out with his son, James, the 18th Chief, to whom Robert had nothing to leave. The members of the clan who had fled to Gigha held it for the MacDonald of the Isles but took the protection of that clan in the late 16th century.