Clan Strachan - Highland Clan

Highland Clan

The Highland Boundary Fault is a geologic fault that traverses Scotland from Arran and Helensburgh on the west coast to Stonehaven in the east. It separates two distinctly different physiographic regions: the Highlands from the Lowlands, but in most places it is only recognisable as a change in topography. The Strachan District (or Strachan, Aberdeenshire aka the original Strachan lands and home of all Strachans) is located in Aberdeenshire some 15 miles northeast of Stonehaven, north of the Highland Boundary Fault, and is therefore properly recognized as a Scottish Highland clan. A few websites and various unofficial sources mistakenly purport that Clan Strachan is a Lowland clan, possibly because one of the Strachan castles (Thornton Castle) is located in Kincardineshire, just south of the Highland Boundary Fault in Laurencekirk (Strachan occupied 1348–1687). However, the noble Houses of Strachan (Thornton, Glenkindie, Lenturk, Carmyllie, and the Barony in Aberdeenshire) all originated from the pre-feudal Earldom (post-feudal Barony) of Strachan (aka the Strachan District). In addition to the location of the Strachan District being in the Royal Deeside Grampian Highlands of Scotland, which is well north of the Highland boundary, the other chiefly Houses of Strachan of equal stature to the House of Thornton were all located well north of the Highland Boundary Fault (e.g. Strachans of Glenkindie, Strachans of Lenturk). The Strachans of Glenkindie have occupied Glenkindie Castle, (and later, Glenkindie House) far longer than their Strachan cousins occupied Thornton Castle. In fact, the last chief of Clan Strachan, Bart. Admiral Sir Richard John Strachan, RN never stepped foot inside Thornton Castle. Although the family retained the Barony of Thornton, the property itself had been sold (in 1687) some 140 years prior to his death in 1828. Sir Richard, his wife and children settled in London after he retired from the Royal Navy. At the age of sixty-seven, Sir Richard John Strachan died at his residence, in Bryanstone-square, London, after a short illness, on 3 February 1828. Sir Richard's death, with no male heir, marked the definitive end of a dynasty that had lasted nearly 500 years.