Brae signifies the steep bank of a river, and so any slope or hill-side.
Cromwell in his Scottish campaign built the Citadel in 1650 and the mounds on the links, known as "Giant's Brae" and "Lady Fife's Brae," were thrown up by the Protector as batteries.
Among the most prominent of these men in addition to Brae, Chevalier and Chabannes, were Tristan Lermite, Jean de Daillon, Olivier le Dain (the barber), and after 1472, Philippe de Commines, drawn from the service of Charles the Bold of Burgundy, who became his most intimate adviser and biographer.
Back at Queensferry, the heavily-loaded car always struggled very hard to get up the steep brae from the Hawes Inn.
Then I walked down the south school brae where I once traveled all those years ago.