Clan Gunn

Crest & Motto

Clan Gunn crest 3D model — Aut Pax Aut Bellum motto — STL file for 3D printing or CNC carving The Gunn crest shows a hand grasping a sword, and the motto is Aut Pax Aut Bellum — “either peace or war”.

History

Clan Gunn is one of Scotland’s most distinctly Norse-Gaelic clans. The name is traditionally traced to Gunni, a Norse chieftain of the late 12th century said to descend from Sweyn Asleifsson of Orkney, and relates to the Old Norse gunnr — “war”. The clan’s territory lay in the far northeast Highlands: Caithness and northeast Sutherland, particularly the straths of Kildonan and the Latheron coast.

The Gunns’ medieval prominence came through the office of hereditary crowner (coroner) of Caithness, held in the 15th century by George Gunn, Am Bràisdeach Mòr — “the great brooch-wearer”. Clan history was shaped by bitter feuds with neighbouring clans, above all Clan Keith. The most famous episode is the treacherous killing of George Gunn and his sons by the Keiths at the Chapel of St Tears near Ackergill in the 1460s, during a supposed parley. Remarkably, the Gunn–Keith feud was only formally ended in 1978, when the two clans signed a treaty of friendship.

Gunn country was devastated by the Sutherland Clearances: the Strath of Kildonan was largely emptied between 1813 and 1819, and many Gunns emigrated — notably to the Red River settlement in Canada, as well as the USA, Australia and New Zealand. The chiefship went dormant in the late 18th century, leaving the clan without a chief for some 230 years, until the Lord Lyon recognised Iain Gunn of Banniskirk as chief in 2015. The Clan Gunn Heritage Centre stands in the old parish kirk at Latheron in Caithness.

Clan Chief

The current chief is John Gunn of Gunn, who succeeded on the death of his father Iain Gunn of Gunn in October 2024 and was formally recognised at a ceremony in Edinburgh in April 2025.