Shoot review: Lylestane Lodge, Eskdale Shooting Services

What is it that makes a driven shooting day special? Obviously the birds – and this day they were a mixture of pheasant and partridge– need to be challenging and well presented. Then the company should be friendly, welcoming and fun to be with. The scenery should be eye-catching, the organisation slick and smooth and the weather – the one thing that cannot be controlled – should be kind, or at the very least, not too unkind. When all those factors come together you are set for a special day’s shooting and when I visited Eskdale Shooting Services on an early December day that was exactly what we got.

Wilson Young who runs Eskdale Shooting Services has been providing shooting of the very highest quality in Northumberland and the Scottish Borders for over thirty years. One of the pioneers of showing high partridges over valleys on the fringes of grouse moors, Eskdale Shooting Services pride themselves on showing pheasant and partridge that will challenge the best shots in the world – and some of the best shots in the world come back here year after year to test themselves against some of the most sporting birds you will ever see.

It was a dry start to the day though rain was forecast to come in after lunch as we met at Lylestane Lodge: Scottish base of Harry Dobson who, with Arthur Demoulas was hosting the day. The wind was blowing hard from the west as we drove across the Duke of Northumberland’s Burncastle Estate to the first drive known as The Stables. There were a couple of grouse gritting on the edge of the track as we made our way along the valley between steep, bracken covered slopes with heather moorland climbing away into the distance above us. The seven Guns made their way up a track to their pegs along the edge of a little burn that tumbled down the hillside and lined out with the wind coming straight from the top of the hill where the birds would soon start appearing.

As the first half-a-dozen partridges soared over the line I decided I would have to slightly alter my perception of what a really high bird looks like. My first thought was ‘Those are out of range.’ Then, as I watched Arthur Demoulas start folding them up – pat, pat – with what looked like nonchalant ease I realised that they patently were in range – but just not in range for me. Arthur was shooting with a superb pair of Boss over and unders and using them to spectacular effect – a fine advert for one of the best gun makers in the world and absolutely appropriate since Arthur owns the company. The drive brought a steady stream of pheasant and partridge gliding over the full line of Guns; all beautifully presented with no big flushes or long pauses in the action.

The drive ended and the pickers-up swung into action with an interesting selection of dogs including a very fit looking Clumber spaniel and a couple of GSPs as well as the usual Labs and spaniels. The Guns made their way back to the vehicles and moved a quarter of a mile or so along the valley to take their pegs for the Quarry drive. Once again we were in the bottom of a steep sided valley with bracken banks leading up to a cover crop and the open moor. This time though the wind was blowing across the drive from left to right and it was clear, even before the first birds starting coming, that these would be even more challenging that those at the Stables.

A mixture of partridge and pheasant, the Quarry birds were at least as high as those on the first drive but had the added complication of drift to take into account as well as extreme height and speed. There was no option to shoot at lower birds because I didn’t see anything but high, fast, curling pheasants and partridges plus the occasional grouse as another steady stream of birds crossed the line. Angus McGregor, shooting for the first time with his Beretta 12 bore (replacing a 20 bore) was quickly in action and killed some very testing birds on the end of the line. Angus’s father Colin was in the thick of the action and, like all the Guns on this drive enjoyed some very testing shooting. Further along the line Will and Lauren Cowan were enjoying the challenge of coming to terms with pheasant and partridge that were very much in the premier division. Will and Lauren run HookFire, a sporting company providing dove shooting, trout fishing, stalking and quail shooting over pointers in Patagonia, though both hail originally from the USA.

We stopped for a few minutes after the drive for soup and sausages while the beating team made their way round for the third drive – the Pig Wood – another drive where the birds would be flushed from high up on the valley side with the wind blowing left to right. Arthur Demoulas was in the pound seat for this one, halfway up the hill and facing into the wind with the birds topping the wood and whistling over him like little rockets. Partridges that he was killing vertically overhead were dropping into the bracken a good hundred yards behind the peg such was their speed and height. At the end of the drive Arthur returned with a big smile on his face while his loader was carrying a very big bag of empty shells.

The next drive should have been the Face, but the wind was now so strong that Wilson decided to switch to a kale crop on Harry Dobson’s Lylestane ground. A very picturesque drive this one with the Guns lining out under a line of ancient beeches. More sheltered from the wind here the pheasants and partridges from the kale were a little less challenging than the earlier drives but still good, sporting birds. As with the first three drives the birds came in a steady stream with no sign of a big flush that looks spectacular but means that most of the birds are ‘wasted’. Even shooting with double guns four shots will normally be the most a Gun can get off, and if a hundred birds come over your peg at once ninety-six of them will go unsaluted. 

Once the drive was over we made our way back to the bothy where Carolyn Campbell had prepared lunch: soup, a shepherd’s pie, cake, cheese and biscuits. It was clear from the conversation that the team of Guns were all very much at ease after a great morning’s shooting and having shot through there was no rush to get back on pegs. 

Eskdale Shooting Services is run by Wilson Young and his son, also called Wilson, and they organize shooting over 65,000 acres around the Scottish Borders and Northumberland. Driven and walked up grouse, rough shooting, roe deer stalking and driven pheasant and partridge keep them busy from August to the end of January and in the week before I visited they had hosted twenty-four shooting days. Shooting is tailored to the customers’ requirements: you can enjoy anything from a rough shoot or a relatively small driven day to a full-on double-gun day at some of the highest and fastest pheasants and partridges you will find anywhere in the country. And if your team of Guns is not quite up to the most stratospheric birds then there are drives that will challenge you without utterly humiliating you.

So how well did Eskdale Shooting Services meet my five requirements for a great day’s shooting? The quality of the birds was, simply, outstanding – about as challenging as a partridge or pheasant can get and beautifully presented. The company was great: friendly, interesting and fun to be with. The scenery: those bracken covered banks leading up to the fringes of the grouse moors with little burns tumbling noisily behind the Guns was superb. The organisation was great: the day flowed seamlessly from drive to drive: and finally the weather was grand. Pretty much the perfect day’s shooting and if you would like to test yourself against game of the highest quality then you can contact Wilson Young through Eskdale Shooting Services.