In the 1640s Alasdair Mac Colla had been sent by Montrose to suppress support for the Covenanting cause.
He plundered the Ayrshire countryside for some days and then demanded financial penalties.
Sir William Cunningham's penalty for Cunninghamhead was 1,200 merks; £10,000 worth of damage already having been done.

The second 'Highland Host' episode, consisting mainly of Catholic Highlanders, was brought into Ayrshire in 1678 by the Crown Authorities to prevent the conventicles or public meetings held by the Presbyterians.
At Cunninghamhead, occupied at this time by Sir William Cunninghame, Highlanders lived at 'heck and manger' for a month; what meal was in the granary they could not eat, they destroyed; they used fire to open lockfast places; and the Colonel of the troop threatened a farmer upon whom he had quartered himself that, if he did not hand over his money, he would hang him in his own barn.

Robertson relates that "They took free quarters; they robbed people on the high road; they knocked down and wounded those who complained; they stole, and wantonly destroyed, cattle; they subjected people to the torture of fire to discover to them where their money was hidden; they threatened to burn down houses if their demands were not at once complied with; besides free quarters they demanded money every day; they compelled even poor families to buy brandy and tobacco for them; they cut and wounded people from sheer devilment."
The cost of all this amounted to £1,505 17s 0d.
in Dreghorn and Pearceton (Sic) parish alone.
In the 1640s Alasdair Mac Colla had been sent by Montrose to suppress support for the Covenanting cause. He plundered the Ayrshire countryside for some days and then demanded financial penalties. Sir William Cunningham's penalty for Cunninghamhead was 1,200 merks; £10,000 worth of damage already having been done.
The second 'Highland Host' episode, consisting mainly of Catholic Highlanders, was brought into Ayrshire in 1678 by the Crown Authorities to prevent the conventicles or public meetings held by the Presbyterians. At Cunninghamhead, occupied at this time by Sir William Cunninghame, Highlanders lived at 'heck and manger' for a month; what meal was in the granary they could not eat, they destroyed; they used fire to open lockfast places; and the Colonel of the troop threatened a farmer upon whom he had quartered himself that, if he did not hand over his money, he would hang him in his own barn.
Robertson relates that "They took free quarters; they robbed people on the high road; they knocked down and wounded those who complained; they stole, and wantonly destroyed, cattle; they subjected people to the torture of fire to discover to them where their money was hidden; they threatened to burn down houses if their demands were not at once complied with; besides free quarters they demanded money every day; they compelled even poor families to buy brandy and tobacco for them; they cut and wounded people from sheer devilment." The cost of all this amounted to £1,505 17s 0d. in Dreghorn and Pearceton (Sic) parish alone.
Cunninghamhead Estate