This is the website dedicated to the Graemes of Inchbrakie.  With the inclusion of the whole of the book, 'A Book of the Graemes and Grahams' by Louisa Grace Graeme, this website contains a great deal of originally researched history. 

 

The Graemes and the House of Inchbrakie may look back on more tradition and history than most families, but the Graeme family business, Inchbrakie Ltd., now runs The Byre, one of the most modern and well equipped recording studios in Scotland and also has interests in multimedia and website creation and hosting. 

 

This new beginning, based in a new building near Inverness, the capital city of the Highlands, comes after a very difficult period for the Graeme family.  The 20th Century was, without a doubt, hard for many families and the Graemes were no exception.  The century began shortly after the sale and subsequent demolition of the great manor house of Inchbrakie.  The family was scattered throughout the British Empire, but no fortune was earned. 

 

My father George Graeme was born in what is today Bangladesh where his father was managing a tea plantation after serving in The Great War.  George went on to serve in World War II in the Artillery and I continued this military tradition with service in the Parachute Regiment in Northern Ireland and the Far East.

 

Today the Graemes around the World are using the Internet, this website and other means such as forums and blogs to keep in contact.  In fact Lucy Read, who did most of the work typing up The Book of the Graemes, is a descendant of the author, Louisa Grace Graeme and lives in Australia and has kept in touch and has been a major motivational force in getting this new version of the family website up and running.

 

So I would like to thank Lucy and also my wife Mechthild, who completed the task of getting all that text scanned in and corrected.  To give you some idea of the scale of the task and the amount of work involved, if you wished to print out the entire contents of this website, you would need over one thousand sheets of paper.  So to the many Graemes and descendants of the Graemes around the World who have emailed me asking when the new website would be ready, I thank you for your patience and your understanding, but I think you will agree, the wait has been worth it.

 

On a more prosaic note, please note the copyright notice at the foot of each page.  The contents of this website is the property of Inchbrakie Ltd. and a great deal of work and effort has gone into its creation.  It is there for the benefit of the Graemes of Inchbrakie, their heirs and descendants and all those who have an interest in Scottish history. It is not there for commercial or private gain by third parties.  If you wish to use the contents of this website and you are unsure of the status of that usage, please contact us at  andrew @ inchbrakie . com, or better still, use the text reply windows dotted around this website.

 

If you have a message or some information that you feel should be shared with others interested in the Graemes and Scottish history in general, please post this on the message board.

 

The website will be expanded as new projects are completed and included.  One of these will be a photo-safari of points of interest for the Graeme family around Scotland, possibly including scenes and places referred to in The Book of the Graemes.  We shall also be including a history of Scotland with cross references to key events in the family history in the near future.  Our next major upgrade of this website is an on-line museum and we hope to have that ready in a few weeks.

 

The Graemes have always been fighters, on the battlefield and elsewhere and the present generation is no exception.  In particular, the Graemes are known for their commitment to the cause of Scottish Independence.  From the destruction of Antonin's Wall, to the Declaration of Arbroath, from the Battle for Sterling Bridge to the Battle of Colloden, the Graemes were in the thick of it.  This commitment to Independence continues today and the present-day Graeme family believes that an independent Scotland, free to set its own economic, social and foreign policies would lead to a vast improvement in the Scottish economy and the well-being of every Scottish man, woman and child.

 

Those visiting Scotland for the first time are often surprised by what they find.  Yes, the landscape is breathtaking and the roads are windy and narrow, but the 'Bonny Scotland' of the films and whisky adverts, with men in kilts, either playing bagpipes or chucking logs around is largely missing.  What the visitor finds is a modern society that has one of the highest standards of education in the World with 60% of all school leavers going on to university or similar higher education.  Scotland is one of the World's main centres for biomedical and bio technical research, as well as being Europe's hub for mainframe computer manufacture.

 

So please enjoy our website as a part of that modern Scotland, driven by science and new technologies to tell the World of this exciting nation.  As a Graeme, I am keenly aware of our history, both as a nation and as a family and understanding our history is absolutely essential if we are to understand our future.