parliamentary burgh and parish of Scotland, in the county of Forfar, on the South Esk, 7½ miles west of Montrose, with which, and with Forfar, Perth, and Aberdeen, it is connected by railway. It is situated on an abrupt declivity on the north bank of the river, which is here crossed by two bridges. Some of the streets are well built; and among the principal public buildings and institutions are several churches and chapels, the town-house, academy, mechanics' institute, hospitals, and dispensary. Besides the academy, there are four public and several private schools. Brechin unites with Montrose, Arbroath, Forfar, and Bervie, in returning one member to parliament. Electors 172. It is governed by a provost, two bailies, a dean of guild, a treasurer, and eight councillors. The principal manufacture is linen. There are also two distilleries and a paper-work. Market-day Tuesday. Pop. (1851) of parliamentary burgh 6637; of municipality, 4515.

This town is said to have been the capital of the Pictish kings; and the hill of Caterthun (about four miles north of the town), surrounded with an immense coronal of loose stones, is supposed to have been a fortification belonging to that people. The Culdees had a convent here; and their abbot Leod was witness to the grant made by King David to his new abbey of Dunfermline.

Brechin was erected into a bishopric by David I. about 1150. In 1572 James VI., with consent of the Regent Morton, gave a grant for founding a hospital in the burgh. Mr. Galloway Buchan, parson of Corsehill, is one of the witnesses to the grant, which was ratified in 1587. The magistrates and council are patrons of this charity, from which they give a small weekly allowance to poor burgesses, no hospital apparently having ever been erected. William de Brechin, in 1256, founded a chapel called Maison Dieu. Parts of the walls of the chapel still remain in the Maison Dieu Vennel, and prove that the chapel had originally been an elegant little building. Its funds are now appropriated to salary the rector of the academy, who hence takes the title of successor of Maison Dieu. The cathedral, which has been used as the parish church, is a strangely handsome Gothic building, but its appearance has been much injured by modern "improvements." The steeple attached is a noble-looking square tower, with an octagon spire, rising to the height of 128 feet. Close to the church stands the round tower, one of those singular structures, the real use of which has so long baffled the research of antiquaries. These towers are peculiar to North Britain and Ireland; in the latter they are frequent; in the former only two at this time exist, one at Brechin and another at Abernethy. There is no stair in the Brechin tower, and the only access to the top is by means of ladders placed on wooden semicircular floors, which rest on circular projections which form the base of the tower. The height of the tower is 82 feet, the inner diameter within a few feet of the bottom is 8 feet, and the thickness of the wall at that part about 4 feet; the circumference is very near 50 feet; the inner diameter at top is 6 feet 7 inches, the thickness of the wall 2 feet 10 inches, and the circumference 38 feet 8 inches. These proportions give the building a high degree of elegance. The top is roofed with an octagonal spire 18 feet high, which makes the whole height of the building 163 feet. During strong winds this tower has often been observed to vibrate. A stone built into the wall of the churchyard, evidently modernized, but most probably copied from the old stones, records, in not illegible Latin, that during 1647 six hundred persons died of the plague in Brechin in the course of four months.

Brechin was burnt by the Danes in 1012, and by the Marquis of Montrose in 1645.

Within the burgh there is a house said to have been a Hospitium of the knights templars, till recently appropriately used as an inn. These knights seem to have had some lands in the neighbourhood, as there is a piece of ground near Brechin bearing the title of Temple Hill of Bothers. In the vicinity is Huntly Hill, where a battle was fought between the Earls of Huntly and Crawford in 1452.

Brechin Castle, the seat of Lord Pannier, stands on the brink of the river, rather overlooking the South Esk, a little to the south of the town. This castle was besieged by the English under Edward I. in 1293, and was for twenty days gallantly defended by Sir Thomas Maule, ancestor of the family of Pannier, who was slain by a stone thrown from an engine placed on the opposite rising ground, when the castle was instantly surrendered.

Gavin Douglas, Maitland the topographer, Gillies the historian of Greece, and James Tytler, a contributor to the early editions of this work, were natives of Brechin. See Black's History of Brechin.