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Scottish Clan Profile

Clan Forbes

Foirbeis — “territorial, from the lands of Forbes in Aberdeenshire”
“Grace me guide”
Indicative sett, woven in CSS, not a licensed tartan image
GaelicFoirbeis
Historic titleLord Forbes, the premier Lordship of Parliament in the Peerage of Scotland
HeartlandDonside, Aberdeenshire
Plant badgeBroom

An Aberdeenshire clan whose chief holds the oldest lordship in the Scottish peerage. Long rivals of the Gordons, the Forbeses held Donside and built some of the finest tower houses in the north-east.

Ancestral seats

  • Castle Forbes, Alford
  • Druminnor Castle, Rhynie

Where to walk in their footsteps

Access, opening hours and admission change. We confirm every site before it goes into an itinerary.

Craigievar Castle, Aberdeenshire

Pink harled tower house built by a Forbes cadet line, later Forbes-Sempill; National Trust for Scotland.

Druminnor Castle, Rhynie

Early Forbes seat on Donside, open on selected days.

Also recorded as

ForbessFordyceMacFirbis

Travelling to Forbes country

Cashel Travel has arranged clan gatherings and heritage tours across Scotland and Ireland since the 1990s, including full gatherings for Clan Gordon, Hay, Keith, Lindsay, Hunter, Dunbar, Graham, Sutherland and MacLaren. We research the family history, build the itinerary around it, and arrange access to places that are not normally open to the public.

Plan a heritage tour