From North Yorkshire pheasants to walked up grouse in the Lammermuirs

Words and photography by Matt Kidd

Day one of our road trip started on an absolute high with driven pheasants at Studley Royal. When conceptualising this ultimate UK road trip in the Gunmakers' pub, Digby Taylor, George Browne and I naturally agreed that whatever came next it needed to equal or even improve on the previous day’s action. That meant that there was only one real option: grouse, the king of gamebirds.

Catch up with Episode 1 of the roadtrip

“A day of late November grouse shooting can be quite a challenge to source,” explains Digby. “Many, if not nearly all, the driven grouse days are already over by mid-October and only so many estates host walked-up parties until the end of the season on December 10."

"However, my mind immediately thought of Ted Innes Ker, owner and director of Reiver Travel. I have often drooled over bucket-list trip itineraries he has put together in the past. You'd be hard pushed to find a Scottish estate he doesn't have an in with. Needless to say, he found us a suitable and very special location to do so at relatively short notice.”

Grouse on the menu

The destination we had been afforded was part of the 10,000-acre grouse moor in the Lammermuir hills belonging to his brother, the Duke of Roxburghe. It was less than a 40-minute drive away from our accommodation, but not only that, we would be under the tutelage of the Roxburghe Estate’s head keeper Drew Ainslie.

He has been full-time on the estate since 1988 and, with the help of his underkeepers, is responsible for the thriving stock of this precious gamebird and other rare forms of flora and fauna on this part of the estate.

As all we would need for the GunsOnPegs Christmas shoot day lunch was a brace of grouse (ideally two) a short walked-up session with one gun was the order of the day. Over a steaming cup of tea, Drew told us of a location on his boundary that he would like to take us to, which would have ample grouse, if we could get to it, of course...

Up to the uplands

Here was a man who has had years of off-roading experience, seen many innovations succeed and fail, done his research and wanted to put our Grenadier and driving skills to the test in a real environment.

With a grin, he explained it would include a deep, treacherous river crossing, a few newly created and untested tracks intended for ATVs, and all manner of other natural obstacles. Naturally, we accepted his challenge.

Having only been a passenger up until now, I was eager to get behind the INEOS Grenadier’s purposely thick wheel and command it myself. Our steed handled all the greasy riverbeds, heather ruts and furrows, grasses and boggy patches with the surefooted, rock steadiness of a seasoned highland stalking garron, whilst retaining the grace and efficiency of a thoroughbred.

What was estimated to be an hour journey was completed nonchalantly in 30 minutes. “Not bad at all,” Drew admitted from the passenger seat. “Aye, I think we’ll see many estates replacing their current fleet of shooting vehicles with these.” That was enough for us.

Into the heather

Into ‘Park’ it went, and out into the bouncy, copper-coloured heather we stepped, Digby with the gun and a pocket full of steel eco-wad shells, me with the cameras, and Drew with his staff and four-legged companion Dozer – half lab, half German wire-haired pointer – at his side.

You wouldn’t believe it, but within 50m of the vehicle the first covey of grouse got up and with the first barrel Digby folded one of a pair that banked to the right into the heather. An easy retrieve from Dozer followed and we thought the morning it would be over pretty quickly. But it wasn’t, gladly.

For the next hour we traipsed through heather and grasses of varying depths, from a polite ankle height to a sweat-inducing thigh depth, completing a big loop until back at the vehicle. Despite several shots from Digby, admittedly much harder than the first with the grouse now on high alert and spotting us from way off with the bright sun, the bag remained at half a brace.

With moist foreheads, us two southerners welcomed a moment to perch on the Grenadier’s niquely wide flat front fenders to catch our breath and find out what a typical year looks like for a grouse keeper.

Conserving our rare heather moorland ecosystems

“We stop shooting grouse here when we have shot our surplus, usually in mid-October,” he begins. “So, between now and February I will help out on our pheasant days at Floors Castle and be hot on predator control here on the moor, namely after stoats and foxes. Between March and April, we will be heather burning, which encourages the heather to grow new shoots. While new growth is food for grouse and other species, it also helps to spread the sheep out over the hill and reduces the fuel load so that if ever there was a wild fire it would be easy to manage and put out.

“In the summer,” Drew continues, “we are then sitting out for foxes and setting traps for other predators, maintaining roads and grouse butts. Hopefully in August and September, if our hard work has paid off and the weather has been kind, we will be busy shooting. Then it’s back to predator control.”

Protecting endangered species

Of course, the detail of Drew’s duties extends far beyond this short overview, and while the main reason for the expenditure of time and resources is to support grouse to allow a shootable surplus, there are myriad other benefits that come from this.

“The moor is home to great numbers of red-listed waders like curlew, snipe, peewits (lapwing), redshank and golden plover,” adds Drew. “We have merlins and other birds of prey doing well on the estate, too, along with mountain hares, and even very rare moths and butterflies. A moth was recently found here that hadn’t been seen for 30 years! They would not all be doing so well if it were not for our practices in maintaining the habitat, keeping on top of predators and ticks."

“But it isn’t just birds and mammals that benefit from grouse shooting,” explains Drew, “it provides vital income for rural businesses, provides jobs and keeps local hotels and schools from closing, right the way from Derbyshire to the Highlands.”

A near miss

With adequate rest, it was my turn to take the gun. Like earlier on, it was less than a minute until we stumbled on the first grouse, this time with Dozer on point. I crept up behind him and before I found solid footing a covey of three grouse had risen and jinked their way from left to right. I let off two shots moments later, frustratingly ruffling the feathers of one bird without it going down.

Drew marked where it was and made a plan. “Let’s crest this brow and head back round to the East. When we have done that, we will then come at them from another angle. If it is wounded, we will hopefully bump into it again.” On we went, into the bright, low sun.

A moment to remember

Forty yards farther uphill, and with good footing this time, another pair of grouse got up and shifted to the left. One trigger, one down; second trigger, two down... my first left-and-right on grouse. I watched in elation as Dozer retrieved them, sat and presented the beautiful birds to the handler one by one. An unforgettable experience in a truly remarkable location.

Digby and I exchanged gun and camera for the last time, both hopeful for another opportunity for him. We covered the spot where the potentially pricked grouse were last seen but came across nothing. Our walk was completed all too soon. Digby was back behind the wheel and Drew took us a different way back, testing the Grenadier’s mettle once again.

“Coming up the almost vertical looking hill, I genuinely wondered whether the Grenadier could make it,” Digby recounts, on our return journey to Dryburgh Abbey. “I set it into low range, and deployed the central diff lock, and just let the vehicle do its thing. After that I’m pretty confident on taking it anywhere."

"And what a privilege it’s been to shoot on the Roxburghe family estate, with Drew on his home soil. It’s definitely been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and is worthy of featuring on every sporting road trip... I wish only that I'd shot a little bit straighter,” he laughs.

Bag total: 6 pheasants; 3 grouse
Miles completed: 305

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