15 Scottish Clans with Surprising Ties to the Knights Templar

The complex history of medieval Scotland is marked by a deep intersection between the documented feudal transitions of the Highland and Lowland clans and the romanticised legends of the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller. While the physical, property-owning presence of the military orders in Scotland concluded with their fourteenth-century trials and the subsequent sixteenth-century Reformation, their historical and conceptual legacy was kept alive by the structural transformations and political needs of the clans.

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Clan Sinclair (St Clair)

The Sinclairs of Roslin possess a deeply complex history intertwined with the military orders and crusader legends. Historically, Sir Henry St Clair of Roslin and his son William testified against the Knights Templar during their papal trial in Edinburgh in 1309. However, in popular culture and alternative histories, the clan is famously cast as the hereditary protectors of the Templars and their lost treasure, with legends claiming they built Rosslyn Chapel in 1456 to conceal sacred relics like the Holy Grail or the mummified head of Christ. Esoteric lore also links them to the Templars through the 1330 crusade, where Sir Henry's sons, William and John St Clair, were killed alongside Sir James Douglas while attempting to carry Robert the Bruce's heart to the Holy Land. In the early seventeenth century, the family's connection to stone masonry was formalised through the Sinclair Charters, which recognised them as hereditary patrons and protectors of the craft.

Clan Douglas

The history of Clan Douglas is bound to the crusading era and Templar legend through Sir James "the Good" Douglas, the closest companion of Robert the Bruce. Following Bruce's death in 1329, Sir James was tasked with carrying the king's embalmed heart to the Holy Land, but he was killed in Spain in 1330 fighting against Moorish forces at the Battle of Teba. While primary medieval sources make no mention of Templars participating in this campaign, modern alternative histories and family traditions have linked the Douglas knights with the survival of the Templar order in Scotland. Later, during the Jacobite exiles, exiles synthesised these military legends with Freemasonry, reinforcing the connection between the Douglas name and speculative chivalric lineages.

Clan Lockhart

Originally known as "Locard" or "Lokart," this Lowland family's name, arms, and legends were fundamentally reshaped by the 1330 crusade. Sir Simon Locard, 2nd of Lee, accompanied Sir James Douglas on the expedition carrying Robert the Bruce's heart and was entrusted with the key to its silver casket. Following the crusade, the family name evolved to "Lockheart" and subsequently Lockhart, while their arms were augmented to feature a human heart within a fetterlock, accompanied by the motto Corda serrata pando ("I open locked hearts"). During the campaign in Spain, Sir Simon captured a wealthy Moorish emir and received a therapeutic amulet as part of the ransom. This heart-shaped red stone set in a silver coin became known as the "Lee Penny," a famous talisman used in rural Scotland for centuries to cure fevers and livestock diseases.

Clan Seton

Clan Seton is recognised in both medieval administrative records and esoteric traditions for its unswerving loyalty and connections to the military orders. In 1345, Alexander de Seton is recorded as a Knight of the Order of Saint John (Hospitallers) in their preceptory at Torphichen. In alternative and esoteric histories, the Setons are named alongside the Sinclairs and Stewarts as the three principal families representing hereditary senior Knights Templar in Scotland. Following the Protestant Reformation of 1560, Catholic knights who refused to submit to the secularisation of the Torphichen Preceptory reportedly withdrew in a body under the leadership of David de Seton, Grand Prior of Scotland. This act of defiance is celebrated in the contemporary poem Haly Kirk and her Theeves, which laments the Prior Sir James Sandilands' actions while proclaiming that "the temple felt na loss, / Quhan David Setoune bare the crosse".

Clan Stewart (Stuart)

The Royal House of Stewart maintains a prominent position in both documented history and the subsequent political mythologies of the exiles. Alan FitzWalter, the 2nd Lord High Steward of Scotland, was an early benefactor of the Knights Templar in 1189. In the esoteric and Jacobite traditions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Stewarts were regarded as hereditary "Priest-Knight-Kings" who inherited a sacred Davidic bloodline. During their exile in France, Jacobite supporters synthesised Templarism with speculative Freemasonry to establish international networks, culminating in a secret ceremony at Holyrood on 24 September 1745 where Prince Charles Edward Stuart was allegedly elected Grand Master of the ancient chivalry of the Temple of Jerusalem.

Clan Campbell

The connection of Clan Campbell to the military orders is primarily centred in the western Highlands and the archaeology of Argyll. Sir Neil Campbell, an ally and brother-in-law of Robert the Bruce, served as the Bailie of Kilmartin and Loch Awe from 1296. Esoteric researchers, notably Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, have proposed that Campbell commanded a refugee company of Knights Templar at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. As physical evidence, they cite the numerous anonymous grave slabs in Kilmartin Graveyard (the Kilmartin Stones) that feature only a straight sword likeness, which display the same austere characteristics as Templar graves in Europe. While historians and archaeologists have debunked this, identifying the slabs as medieval West Highland carvings for local gentry and Norse-Gaelic Gallowglass warriors, the Campbell clan continued to use the yard as a prestigious burial place.

Clan Menzies

The Menzies family established a direct physical link to the crusader orders by acquiring their properties following the Reformation. Sir Robert de Meyneris was Chamberlain of Scotland in 1249, and his son Alexander married Egidia, daughter of the High Steward of Scotland, aligning the clan with the proto-Stewart dynasty. In 1535, the Knights Hospitaller took advantage of an Act of Parliament permitting them to feu their lands to "local men of substance," enabling the Menzies family to purchase the former Templar preceptory of Maryculter in Aberdeenshire. They subsequently constructed a mansion incorporating the original vaulted stone basements of the preceptor's lodgings, which remains today as part of the Maryculter House Hotel. William Menzies, the Laird of Maryculter in the 18th century, was a prominent Jacobite who supported the Stuart restoration, carrying on the family's rebellious association with these physical ruins.

Clan Rose

Following the 1312 dissolution of the Templars and the subsequent decades of administrative transitions, the Temple lands in Nairnshire were systematically acquired by northern clans. Clan Rose, descended from the de Bisset and de Bosco families of Normandy, had expanded its lands through strategic marriages and royal favour. From the deed of conveyance of the Temple lands in the north by Lord Torphichen, it appears that John Rose, burgess of Nairn, and Hew Rose of Kilravock possessed extensive "arable temple lands" within the territory of the Burgh of Nairn, integrating these sacred holdings directly into the secular estate of Clan Rose.

Clan Davidson

Clan Davidson is connected to the landed legacy of the Knights Templar in northern Scotland. Along with Clan Mackay, the Davidsons held the Temple lands of Ardersier as portioners. These properties, historically designated in old charters as Temple Land, Temple Cruik, Temple Bank, and Bogschand, lay partly in the vicinity of the town of Ardersier. The Davidsons cultivated these lands and utilised the ancient place of trial by wager of battle (locus trialis) before the entire estate was formally acquired by the Campbell Laird of Cawdor in 1626.

Clan Mackay

Clan Mackay also shared in the cultivation and management of northern Templar properties on the Moray Firth. Alongside the Davidsons, the Mackays held the Temple lands of Ardersier as portioners, overseeing the agricultural lands and the ancient trial-by-combat site near the sea. They maintained these tenancies under the nominal superiority of the Preceptor of Torphichen until they were acquired by the Campbell Laird of Cawdor in 1626.

Clan Brodie

Clan Brodie systematically absorbed medieval military monastic holdings into their ancestral estate in Moray. Following the 1312 suppression of the Templars and the subsequent decades of administrative transitions, the Temple lands at Brodie, which included the rich arable lands of Pitfundie, were formally incorporated into the broader Brodie estate via a charter granted in 1626. The Lairds of Brodie subsequently managed these lands as part of their secular patrimony.

Clan Cockburn

The Cockburns played an active role in the secularisation of crusader lands in the fertile lowlands of East Lothian. In 1458, a formal charter was granted transferring former Templar properties to William Cockburn of Newhall. This substantial grant included 14 acres of temple lands with associated tofts and crofts in Gullane, as well as 11 acres in Sanderisdene featuring a constructed manor house (manerium) and common pasture. Cockburn and his descendants managed these lands as secular gentry under the nominal superiority of the Hospitaller Preceptor of Torphichen.

Clan Hay

Clan Hay's connection to the military orders spans the 1330 crusade and the subsequent acquisition of former Templar strongholds. In traditional accounts of the Spanish campaign, a Hay knight is credited with assisting the sole survivor, Sir William Keith, in bringing the bones of James Douglas and the heart of Robert the Bruce back to Scotland. Additionally, following their loyal service to the Bruce at Bannockburn, the family was rewarded with Delgatie Castle, a property in Aberdeenshire historically connected to the region's Templar and Hospitaller land distributions. Sir Gilbert Hay also served as a Scottish knight who famously fought alongside Joan of Arc during the Hundred Years' War.

Clan Montgomery

Clan Montgomery is tied to the military orders through esoteric lineage records and European service. The official "Grand Commanders" chronology of the underground Templars retroactively incorporates prominent members of the family, listing John de Montgomery as Grand Commander from 1439 to 1445 and Hugh Montgomery of Mount Alexander from 1689 to 1716. Furthermore, the Montgomerys were highly prominent in the Garde Écossaise (Scots Guard), an elite unit that served the French Kings, which esoteric historians claim was originally formed as a foreign regiment of the Scottish Knights Templar to preserve their military structure. During the Civil War, Alexander Montgomery, 6th Earl of Eglinton, was a staunch Presbyterian who fought for the Covenanters, while his father remained a loyal supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Clan MacDougall

The MacDougalls of Argyll are tied to the Templar mythos as historical adversaries. During the Wars of Independence, the MacDougalls were bitter rivals of Robert the Bruce. Esoteric histories and alternative timelines assert that Bruce's decisive victory over the clan at the Battle of Brander Pass on 15 August 1308 was secured by a charge of highly disciplined Knights Templar fighting under the command of Neil Campbell. While this remains unsupported by contemporary records, it represents a core pillar of the Western Highland Templar legend.

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