BRECHIN, royal, municipal and police burgh, Forfarshire, Scotland, on the left bank of the South Esk, 7 4m. W. of Mon trose, a station on the loop line of the L.M.S. Railway from For far to Bridge of Dun. Pop. (1931) 6,838. Brechin was the site of a Culdee abbey. The Danes are said to have burned the town in 1O12. David I. erected it into a bishopric in 115o, and it is still a see of the Episcopal Church of Scotland. In 1452 the earl of Huntly crushed the insurrection led by the earl of Crawford at the battle of Brechin Muir, and in 1645 the town and castle were harried by the marquess of Montrose. James VI. gave a grant for a hospital; this still supplies funds for charity. No trace re mains of the old walls and gates. Ancient structures include a very early two-arched stone bridge, Holy Trinity cathedral (13th century) much altered, and near by a round tower built about A.D. 1000. It is 864ft. high, has at the base a circumference of 5oft. and a diameter of 16f t., and is capped with a hexagonal spire of 18f t., which was added in the 15th century. This type of structure is common in Ireland, but the only Scottish examples are those at Brechin, Abernethy in Perthshire, and Egilshay in the Orkneys. Brechin castle played a prominent part in the Scottish War of Independence. In 1303 it withstood for 20 days a siege in force by the English under Edward I., surrendering only when its governor, Sir Thomas Maule, had been slain. From the Maule family it descended to the Dalhousies. Its library contains Burns' correspondence with George Thomson and sev eral cartularies, including those of St. Andrews and Brechin. In the Vennel (alley or small street) are ruins of the maison dieu or Itospitium, founded in 1256 by William of Brechin. The indus tries include linen manufactures and flax-spinning, bleaching, rope-making, distilling, iron-founding and paper-making. Brechin unites with Arbroath, Forfar, Bervie and Montrose to return one member to parliament.