North Stainley Sporting

A full driven day begins with a hot breakfast bap along with tea and coffee at our cozy and welcoming shoot lodge.

Elevenses are served in the field, consisting of homemade soup, estate game, and ample refreshments.

Mid shoot meal with a hearty main course utilising estate game, produced by our highly talented host and chef Will Mason. For those who enjoy something more spectacular, we can offer bespoke meals with live cooking to your preferences.

End the day back at the shoot lodge in front of the fire with charcuterie and port.

We can also offer overnight accommodation in our 8 bedroom 5*, multi award winning B&B, The Old Coach House in North Stainley, which is ideally situated in the centre of the estate, just a 5 minute drive from the shoot lodge.

Due to our varied terrain we have the ability to present shots for all levels of experience, from good 30-40 yards birds to 50-70+ yard more testing targets from drives such as those in the quarry.

We also put down a good number of partridge and fly them over tall hedges and off some of our taller drives, this gives guns a good mixed days shooting at fast traditional partridge as well as some very challenging high birds.

Flat mixed arable lands, ancient pastures intertwined with ancient native woodlands leading onto rolling hills, steep quarry faces and high game crop topped valleys. Much of the estate has had Miscanthus cover crops put in place of rotational crops, although traditional crops such as Kale are still grown. The estate has also invested heavily in biomass willow crops, which provide a welcome addition to the layout of drives.

Over 200 acres of native woodlands and adjoining hedgerow corridors have been planted to provide habitat for not only game, but all wildlife. Much of this has been planted on what was once intensive arable land where there had historically been no woodlands. The planting has never ceased, with new native woodland blocks created annually. These are heavy on Oak, Beech and Hazel ensuring future winter food for the estates wildlife. Existing woodlands are also enjoying a structured management plan, which aims to improve tree health, create understory, and remove invasive species. Wild bird mix has been planted in numerous locations to provide good forage for songbirds. Wildfowl nesting tubes have been built on all our ponds to encourage wild birds with native trees and marshland surrounding.

The estate is the ancestral home of the Staveley family who have had the vision to create the layout of the land to benefit game shooting and conserve our native fauna and flora. Your shoot day is managed by Fenn Smith, who is Head Keeper and estate sporting manager along with your host Will Mason. We pride ourselves in putting on bespoke days that have a relaxed, family shoot day experience without the commercial feel.

North Stainley Estate has long been the ancestral home of the Staveley family. In the early 16th Century the estate was part of Ripon parks, a huge royal hunting forest for Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey. The Staveley's were assigned 'Keepers of Ripon Parks' and tasked with looking after the royal forest. Upon Wolsey's ascension to Archbishopdome and then Cardinal of the Catholic Church, he gifted the land in a long-term lease to the Staveley's in thanks for their valuable service over the years. In 1650 the park's status as a royal hunting forest was abolished by Cromwell's anti-royalist commonwealth regime, however the Staveley's managed to hold on to parts of the estate and have ever since! If the estate was good enough for Henry VIII, we're sure you will love it too.