Change in deer stalking - Scotland

[Ronda Roaring]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,175-1815866,00.html
The Times. 8 October 2005.
Deer hunts welcome a new class of stalker.
By David Lister

Scottish land reforms have opened up one of the traditional
pastimes of the elite to all comers.
GEORGE COOPER looks every inch the gentleman stalker. With a
hunting rifle over his shoulder and gaiters wrapped tightly over
his tweed plus-fours, he looks as though he was born to inherit
a country estate, marry a girl from the shires and spend his
life drinking port and talking about grouse moors.
But when Mr Cooper says that he is "gasping for a beer" it is in
an accent that hails from Broadstairs in Kent. "We're not the
stereotype at all," the 44-year-old carpenter said as he heaved
a dead stag off the back of a quad bike, where it was tied after
the afternoon's shoot. "It used to be the idle rich who went
deer stalking. But the circle we shoot with are just ordinary
blokes - you're talking about a landscape gardener, painters and
decorators. We come up with people from Ashford in Kent,
Lancashire, Essex. There's another guy who joins us from
Humberside, a few more from London. You'd be amazed by the
number of guys like us who come up from all over England."
A quiet revolution is taking place in the world of deer
stalking, which was traditionally the exclusive preserve of the
land-owning elite. Nowhere is this more true than in Scotland,
where the lure of hunting in one of Europe's last great
wildernesses has for generations made it Britain's most
sought-after stalking destination. Glencanisp Lodge in
Sutherland is symbolic of the changing times. It is a 14-bedroom
hunting lodge surrounded by lochs and woodland, owned for 70
years by the multimillionaire Vestey family. This year the
property, along with 44,000 acres including three mountains,
countless lochs and 1,853 deer, was bought for £2.9 million by
450 families under new right-to-buy legislation that has given
local communities unprecedented opportunities to buy their
surrounding land.
Bill Ritchie, the vice-chairman of the Assynt Foundation, which
organised the buy-out, said: "This place has always been private
hunting ground, so there's an opportunity to open it up. We
expect to operate a wide range of options - from the guest who
wants to be cosseted, with unlimited food and drink and the car
from the airport, to average people who just want to come for a
couple of days and stay in a B&B."
For £300 a day people can come to stalk with a professional
guide - if they are able to shoot, can put up with the midges
and are prepared to walk up to ten miles at a time, sometimes in
the pouring rain. Peter Locke, 51, a self- employed carpenter,
also from Kent, who plans his entire year around the stalking
season, is among the first outside stalkers to sample the
estate. "We're not in it for the trophies of shooting the
biggest stags. For us being in a place like this is one hell of
a novelty. It's about leaving the traffic jams behind and
driving for miles without seeing anybody."
On the neighbouring North Assynt Estate, which has been
community-owned since 1993, stalking is now available for £225 a
day with a guide, or £100 if no stags are sighted. By
comparison, at the top end of the market it is not unusual to
pay £20,000 a week for a group of people, including stalking
costs and accommodation in an old- fashioned hunting lodge. Like
an increasing number of estates, North Assynt is trying to reach
out to first-time stalkers. Calum Millar, 27, the estate's
professional stalker, said: "We don't normally ask what people's
professions are, but there's definitely a range now - from
policemen, doctors or surveyors to builders."
According to Donald Muir, who runs stalking courses for the
British Association for Shooting and Conservation, the move to
make the sport more accessible has coincided with a host of
sociological changes. "It is not just that there is more
disposable income about and that some of the estates are now
facing more pressure to make money, but there is also a greater
desire out there to try something different," he said.
HOW TO BAG YOUR FIRST ANTLERS
# Stalkers must prove that they are proficient with a gun and
can kill a stag with a single shot to the chest or neck. This
involves shooting at a fixed target
# Clothing must be warm but not brightly coloured and must not
rustle
# To keep their herds healthy, estates cull weaker, older stags
first and limit the number any stalker can kill
# Book ahead - the stalking season for red stags is from July 1
to October 20, while hinds are culled from October 21 to
February 15

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