Clan MacDuff Tours of Scotland

Clan MacDuff Tours of Scotland. Tradition states that MacDuff was the patronymic of the Celtic Earls of Fife, and that the first Earl was MacDuff who opposed MacBeth and assisted Malcolm to the throne of Scotland in those days. Ethelred, King Malcolm Canmore's son is the first recorded Earl of Fife.

The origin of these three Earls is unknown, but it is significant that the genealogies given for King Lulach and King Macbeth are headed "Genealogy of Clan Duff."

When Robert the Bruce was crowned in 1306, Duncan, Earl of Fife was opposed to Bruce and his sister Isabel, Countess of Buchan, and wife of Comyn, Bruce's enemy, exercised her family's privilege and suffered seven years imprisonment in Berwick for her courage.

Alexander W.G. Duff, Duke of Fife and Earl of MacDuff, born in 1849, was a successful financier and a founder of the Chartered Company of South Africa. He married Princess Louise, daughter of King Edward VII in 1889 and later died in 1912.

The Duffs of Banffshire claim descency from the Earls of Fife. It is possible that David Duff of Muldavit, in Banffshire (1401), was a descendant of the Earls of Fife, as was claimed but there is no actual evidence. After the direct line of Craighead-Muldavit expired, Duff of Keithmore, descendant of Adam Duff of Clunybeg, assumed the chiefship and acquired vast estates in north-eastern Scotland during the 17th and 18th centuries.

The representer of this line, William Duff of Braco, was created Lord Braco in 1725, and received in 1759 the titles of Viscount MacDuff and Earl of Fife in the Peerage of Ireland. Duff of Drummuir was adjudged heir to the line of Craighead in 1731 by Lyon Court. Duff of Hatton and Duff of Fetterisso are the other prominent branches.

Septs of Clan: Duff, Fife, Fyfe, Spence, Spens, Wemyss, Weems.