Stalking Wild boar and Fallow deer in Middle Earth with Mike Robinson

Matt Kidd joins chef, restaurateur, TV host and deer manager Mike Robinson as he heads into the Forest of Dean in search of wild boar and fallow deer

Words and Photography by Matt Kidd

The grey-muzzled lurcher and colly-x-lab’s noses twitch through the small gap in window, hoping to catch a scent of a suitable quarry species before their owner is fully togged up. But there was no such luck. Instead, they hop out when asked and embark on a route they’ve padded a hundred times or more, silently guiding the way only a step or two in front, with the lab (also deaf as a post) occasionally glancing over its shoulder to check there were no stragglers.

Early wintry mornings like this one, still mostly dark and colourless but for an inky blue sky, feature regularly in Mike Robinson and his aging companions’ schedule. Predominantly due to his need to supply his third successful business venture – Deerbox Ltd. – with quality wild produce to be delivered to home kitchens around the country, and partly because he has an enduring passion for stalking.

Contrary to the name, it is not just venison that is processed back at the larder, packed and delivered year-round by Deerbox to our front doors, but wild boar too. Indeed, that’s why our morning’s foray took on an even eerier impression, for we were in the famous Forest of Dean.

Stepping back in time

“It’s a totally medieval, mystical and magical place and an utter privilege to stalk boar here,” Mike whispers, outstretching an arm and index finger to halt the lab, who at once upon noticing the command, sits and turns its nose to the wind.

He pulls out his binos, using his sticks as a stabiliser to glass one of the woodland rides, adding: “As you will see when it gets a little lighter, the Forest of Dean has a topography of its own. It is this very area that inspired much of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, during his work as an archaeologist in the late 1920s.”

Holistic landscape management

It is not just consumer demand that sees Mike, and DeerBox Co-owner Ben Heath out an hour before sun-up three times a week though. The second arm of the business is to guarantee to their landowners that harvesting will be done in the most efficient and humane way, using only best practices to protect their crops and woodlands.

“We now have about 40,000 acres of stalking collectively and the Forest of Dean is just one of about eight locations, with owners being delighted with the results. Both arms are growing steadily, and the consumer side has doubled every year for the last three years. We have five-star reviews on Trust Pilot and a 90 per cent repurchasing rate which we are proud of and proves that it is a really great product. It is a holistic system, and it seems to work.”

The direction of the cold north-westerly was favourable, concealing our position on each of the handful of rides we stopped at, but it was still a lot milder than recent weeks and no boar would eventually present themselves in the gloaming. Mike – or maybe it was the dogs? – decided it was time to turn and make tracks back to the vehicle and try somewhere else.

As aforementioned, Deerbox is only part of Mike’s business portfolio and he is most known for his outstanding work in the culinary world. However, Mike is possibly the busiest, most efficient man I have ever come across.

Restaurants, spearfishing and vintage vehicles

He is a restaurateur with three top eateries under his watch – The Woodsman (Stratford-upon-Avon), The Elder (Bath – also soon to open a Brasserie at the same location), and the Michelin-starred Harwood Arms (Fullham). He then hosts his own TV shows, Farming the Wild which now enters its 6th 10-episode season, Fishing the Wild (3 seasons), and Wild Game Masterclass (3 seasons).

Amidst all of that, he still finds time for other hobbies. Firstly, a newfound passion for spearfishing (“When you take it up in your 50s it is really hard – it is both mental and physical to the extreme, you can’t pretend to be fit nor good at it, so you have work very hard every chance you get if you want to improve.”) which he combines with his passion for collecting classic vehicles, among other things. Which is partly why the INEOS Grenadier he has on test was his steed of choice on my visit.

You might be wondering what long-discontinued classic cars and an INEOS Grenadier which is still in its production line have in common? But Mike’s collection is somewhat outside of your run-of-the-mill garage. “I’ve always loved classic cars and older mechanical things versus electronic. So, 10-12 years ago, when my grandmother left me a small sum with the instructions that I should have fun with it, I started collecting cars,” Mike said as he slotted the key in the ignition, adding:

The first I purchased was a Daimler Ferret, [a small, armoured vehicle]. Since then, I’ve bought, among other things, a Daimler coupe -which remains a work in progress - I have a DB9, and my day-to-day car is a 1976 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow; which is the loveliest car to drive in the history of the world.

I then have three tanks: an Alvis Sabre and Scorpion – both light tanks – and a 1943 half-track, a ’52 Diamler Ferett and an Austin Champ from 1950. The half-track is a bit painful on the wallet at 3.2MPG on the route to the pub or local coffee shop, but the Scorpion and Sabre are positively efficient at 6MPG!” he laughs. “My normal stalking brake is a 20-year-old Land Rover Discovery 2, which is currently out of commission as it spat its prop-shaft out in true Land Rover fashion whilst heading out the other week. So I thought I’d put the INEOS Grenadier through its paces.

And so, we headed deep into Tolkien country over “real gnarly ground” and “very gluey mud” to where we hoped to harvest a boar or deer before heading back to the larder. Some of the ground, much to my surprise, was where Mike had enjoyed previous near-catastrophic fails in other vehicles.

Giving me his routes and tactics he would employ in the event that Grenadier slid sideways off the inclined tracks and into thick undergrowth and brambles (one including turning down the slope and flooring it), I learned that I would be required to get out and guide him through, free of covered logs (if still driveable).

Gladly, the vehicle held its ground - despite being on two wheels on occasions - and threaded itself surefootedly over some truly ridiculous, and indeed photogenic terrain. Mike was duly impressed.

“I like simple things, robust vehicles particularly, that are very solid and very military,” Mike explains. “The Grenadier is exactly that and I really enjoy driving it. You can tell it is designed as an off-roader; people who don’t like the gearbox are most used to driving SUVs with a little off-road capability. It’s the same for the steering wheel – it divides opinions but I personally like it. As we have seen, its highly capable in wet, muddy ground and has good clearance. I also find it more than comfortable on long drives – I have driven 700 miles already this week!”

Middle Earth

Now light enough to see colour in the trees, it was no surprise why Tolkien drew so much from this place and why it is one of Mike’s favourite places to stalk (and drive). Vibrant-orange puddles form from underground iron deposits that contrast with the depths of green cast from mossy banks, beardy lichens and spiny evergreens.

Beside some of the tracks, both beaten and unbeaten, were gulleys big enough to conceal an ambush from an army of Uruk-Hai or even a mountain troll, fallen trees and all manner of features and foliage that could hide a hobbit or wild boar.

But once on foot again, we found evidence of the impact of wild boar, where huge patches of turf had been turned over as they forage for food. I nearly use the word ‘devastation’ but it is a lot more complicated than that. In vast numbers it would be so, but managed to a sustainable number like Mike, his Deerbox co-founder and members have done in the forest, some good can come from their habits and turning over of the soil and improve biodiversity.

Perserverance and persistance

Over the next couple hours, we stalked and waited, the dogs on a couple occasions making fuss of scent and on a few occasions, we spotted suspect shapes and movement that turned out to be shadows.

Eventually Mike did down a fallow doe in a more open area which was gralloched and placed into the carcass tray which fitted perfectly sideways in the boot of the INEOS Grenadier, much to Mike’s delight.

Another bonus point for Mike was that the rifle sticks rested perfectly across the boot space without having to adjust them, and many of the other little quirks from the height of the window rests to the front bumper seats. “The only thing I have found odd is the Biblical levels of hate from the Land Rover crowd! It is staggering the level of vitriol I’ve experienced, akin to insulting their grandmother or calling their dog ugly!”

Back at Deerbox HQ, the fallow was placed in the chiller and a selection of ingredients were gathered for the next element of our morning: Mike’s incredible sausage rolls cooked in his Studio Kitchen. After which, Mike was out to do one of his two weekly restaurant visits before prep for his next episode of Farming the Wild.