Glenample estate

Glenample is famed for its outstanding stalking and in the past few years also for its pheasant shoot. It is set in the southern highlands of Scotland in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, only one and a half hours from Edinburgh or Glasgow.

The estate covers over 8000 acres and about 2/3 hill and 1/3 woodland and as you would expect not a lot of flat ground. The entrance of the glen is at the north end overlooking Loch Earn and the house and all buildings about 1 1/2 miles from the road up a private track. All drives, 9 in total, are in the first 2 miles of the glen.

The topography of the ground allows for a varied day to suit guns of all levels, birds that will test the snap shooters as they appear over the tree tops, high birds that you can see flush up to 90 metres higher than the line, set their wings and dive for the forest behind you, more often than not they make it!

Just to add a little spice, a few partridges with the occasional woodcock and wild duck can also be found on the shoot. The gun line in the glen bottom are often watched by large groups of stags who live on the hill above the drives oblivious to the noise of the guns - they must know the difference between a shotgun and a rifle!

The shoot prides itself on being small and friendly, being run by the keeper and a small efficient group of beaters who also pickup. Guns are also welcome to bring dogs and use them to pickup if they enjoy this.

Lunch is not provided, but a comfortable lunch room is available which is shared with the beaters, all helping the friendly atmosphere. All drives are well accessible and 4WD is not needed unless we have a lot of snow and even then we can transport the guns.

A day normally consists of 5 drives,then 2, then a break in the field, 2 more and then lunch and 1 after, but all this can be varied to suit the guns. We can cater for teams of six to ten guns and we do not add in any other guns to make up the line. Early season days are 100 bird days and later we drop down to 60 to 80 bird days, all days are designed to last the full day, starting the first drive at 10, giving people a chance to arrive relaxed.

There are many nice hotels in the area to suit all tastes and pockets and details of these we are happy to pass on. People with good memories may remember the shoot was the feature shoot in the shooting times in November 1997, well all the tree planting and drive developments are now operating and surpassing our early expectations.