The village's name of Hunmanby originated with the Danes, appearing in King William's Domesday Book (published in 1086) as 'Hundemanbi' meaning 'farmstead of the hounds men', relating to the hunting down of wolves on the Yorkshire Wolds.

[5] Given by William the Conqueror to Gilbert de Gant,[6] De Gant lived in a house "without the town" named Le Burlyn (Old French for wool house), regarded to be built on the site where now stands Low Hall, the manor of Hunmanby became one of the most powerful in the North of England.

It was destroyed during the Battle of Hunmanby by William le Gros (the Earl of York) and the Constable of Chester, Eustace fitz John during a period of history known as The Anarchy.

[16] After the death of Lord Nunburnholme in the early part of the 19th century, the Hall was bought by the Methodist Education Committee and re-opened in April 1928 as a boarding school for girls.

[27] Services are hourly between Hull and Scarborough each way,[28] with the station being on an isolated two track section on a largely single line between Bridlington and Seamer.

In 2017 Yorkshire's first whisky distillery was opened on Hunmanby Industrial Estate by the owners of the nearby Wold Top Brewery.

[30] The dinosaurs for Blackgang Chine on the Isle of Wight were manufactured in Hunmanby by Beck Engineering and featured on the television series Blue Peter.

Hunmanby is also the location of a television transmitter which acts as a local relay filler for Filey, Bridlington and the surrounding villages which are unable to receive transmissions from Oliver's Mount and Belmont.

It also is a terminal for the VSNL Northern Europe submarine telecommunications cable connecting with De Marne in the Netherlands.

[31] In 2010, Hunmanby won a Silver-gilt at the Britain in Bloom awards, this was the first time the village had entered the competition.