Clan Hunter

History

The Hunters take their name from an old occupation and their identity from one place: Hunterston, on the Ayrshire coast near West Kilbride. Clan tradition says the family arrived in the twelfth century and received land from David I, in return for looking after royal hunting grounds. Early records mention an Aylmer le Hunter of Ayr in 1296. Tradition is not record, and the earliest generations are hard to prove.

The firmest early date is 2 May 1374, when Robert II issued a charter confirming lands to William Hunter for the yearly payment of a silver penny at Pentecost. The family still holds it at Hunterston, and the clan's own site describes it as the oldest document in their possession. Earlier links in the chain are harder to prove, so it is safest to say the Hunters were established in Ayrshire by the fourteenth century.

The family also had a royal office. Accounts say the Hunters were hereditary keepers of the royal forests of Arran and Little Cumbrae by the fifteenth century. The post suited the name and tied them to the Crown. The hunting horns on the chief's shield, and the crowned greyhound of the crest, fit that hunting heritage.

War is part of the family story. Clan accounts say a laird named John Hunter was killed with James IV at Flodden in 1513, and that a later Hunter fell at Pinkie in 1547. Published accounts disagree on the names and the numbering of the lairds, so we give no more detail than that.

Historic Environment Scotland lists Hunterston Castle as a Category A building, added to the list in 1971. Its entry describes a small four-storey tower house dating from the fifteenth or early sixteenth century, joined to a house of the seventeenth century, and records that the Hunters stayed there until a Georgian mansion replaced it as their home. The clan's own site gives an older date for the tower, but we follow the national listing. The castle is still associated with the family today.

The chief is styled Hunter of Hunterston, and the chief's arms are recorded with the Lord Lyon. The shield shows three green hunting horns on gold, and the motto is Cursum perficio, 'I complete the course'. Sources translate the Latin a little differently. The chief's clan tartan was recorded with the Lord Lyon in 1991. Hunter is also a common occupational name, so a shared surname is a clue, not proof of descent from the Hunterston family. We do not name the present holder here.