The roots of the Byres family are in the Boernician tribe of ancient Scotland. The Byres family lived in or near the place named Byres in Scotland. The placename, Byres, derives from the Old English word byre, which means cattle shed. Boernician names that evolved in the largely preliterate Middle Ages are often marked by considerable spelling variations. Byers has been spelled Byers, Byres, Byer, Buyers, Byris and others.
Byres Castle is now a ruin but it occupied a highly defensible position over the fertile farmland of this rich county. Sir John Byres of Coates added the lands 
of Warriston near Edinburgh to his inheritance and fought for the king during the civil war, when he was knighted for his services. His fine seventeenth century mansion of Coates still stands and now forms part of the world-famous 
St Mary’s Cathedral Music School. The family continued to prosper and acquired the barony of Tinley in Aberdeen which became the chief seat of the family.
 
Byres is a sept of Clan Lindsey and uses the Lindsey Tartan