The Forrester crest is a hound’s head with collar, with the motto ‘blaw hunter blaw thy horn’. This comes from the Lords Forrester of Corstorphine.


This was more or less the crest of Forrester recorded in the Workman Manuscript of 1565-6 (spelled there ‘Foster’), which had the motto ‘Hunter bla vy horn’. The arms of Lord Forrester included three hunting horns, while the supporters of the arms were two more dogs. So there’s not a huge amount of subtlety here, all the references are to hunting, and this isn’t surprising, given the role of hunting in medieval and early modern forestry. A forester was someone who managed and policed a royal forest, and hunting was one of the important recreational uses a forest was put to.


The crest of a dog’s head seems to be shown above the terrific effigy tomb of Sir John Forrester and his wife in the Collegiate Church of Corstorphine. This dates to about 1440. The carving is well-worn from its great age, but we see a dog’s head attached to the wreath, so this hound doesn’t seem to be ‘erased’ as the modern blazon has it – likewise it doesn’t seem to have a collar. But all the same, this will be one of the older crests for any Scottish families.  


MKP 9 August 2024