The Province of Forfarshire

An Ancient Pictish part of Scotland

An Ancient County The Province of Forfarshire covers the southern part (Circinn) of the ancient heartlands of what was once the Kingdom of the Picts, a time before the creation of Scotland itself. The Romans gave our ancestors this name, "The Picts - the painted ones", a race which even they feared and could not conquer.

The Province of Forfarshire has under its jurisdiction, 33 Lodges, this covers the, City of Dundee, the Coastal Towns of Broughty Ferry, Monifieth, Carnoustie, Arbroath, and Montrose. Also the Historic inland towns of Brechin, Froickheim, Forfar, Glamis and Kirriemuir, and then there is the Lodge up in beautiful Glen Esk, that of St Andrew No. 282, Lochlee.

The County Area of the Province is rich in history - Arbroath where the great Scottish Declaration of Independence was signed, and famous for its 'Smokies'.

The Cathedral Town of Brechin, seat of the Earl of Dalhousie - whose family provided many Provincial Grand Masters in the 19th to early 20th Century

Historic Montrose strongly Jacobite in the 17th & 18 Centuries, home to the Burnes family, cousins to Scotlands greatest 'Bard' - Robert Burns.

Historic Glamis, seat of the Earls of Strathmore, the family of the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and home of the only Lodge in Scotland with links to the Royal Family. The Lodge affiliated the Duke of York, the future King George VI, in 1936. There is also nearby Kirriemuir, birthplace of J.M. Barrie who wrote 'Peter Pan'.

The County town of Forfar, famous for its delicacy 'The Forfar Bridie'. and Carnoustie for its famous Golf Course.

The City of Dundee on the north bank of the great River Tay has been in existence for over 800 years, its origins probably going even further back into the mists of time. The origins of Operative masonry in Dundee can be traced and documented back to at least 1536 with the mention of the Lady Luge of Dundee, at the time of the Reformation in Scotland in 1560 the Lodge changes its name to the Lodge of Dundee, still an operative Lodge, the transition into the modern form of speculative Freemasonry possibly starting in 1659, maybe earlier and still called the Lodge of Dundee. Today Dundee has 13 Lodges the oldest being The Operative Lodge of Dundee No. 47, and The Ancient Lodge of Dundee No. 49. Although it can be proved that the History of Operative and Speculative Masonry can be traced back to the early 16th Century, possibly even the late 15th Century.