BY GREG LATHAM

This is the result of my day on the Hill last Thursday:

The gentleman who shot the stag first came to me in 1993. So, he has been coming to stalk deer in Scotland for the past 30 years.

Over that time, he has rented self-catering accommodation, hotel accommodation and, for the last fifteen years or so, a Highland Lodge.

Always bringing  a family party or a group of friends.

The amount of money he has spent over this time is somewhere between a quarter of a million and half a million pounds.

Out of this money the Estates were paid for stalking. Staff were employed in hotels and the lodge. Local businesses paid to supply.

Food and drink was mostly sourced locally.

Add to all that car hire and fuel costs. Sometimes their party would hire two or three vehicles.

I know for a fact he spent over £20,000 in the local Gunsmith over the years on optical equipment, clothes and other sporting-related equipment.

While the males of the party were out stalking, the ladies would be sightseeing around the north of Scotland, having lunches in hotels and restaurants and shopping in clothes and gift shops.

All this money being spent in the north of Scotland in local businesses, so a great help to the local economy and employment.

Deer Stalking is thought to generate £105m-a-year for the UK economy with £70.4m of that money remaining in Scotland. Clients of sporting estates can expect to pay up to £500 to shoot a stag and £100 for a hind. It has also been estimated that a total of 2,520 jobs were associated with deer management. (Source BBC 2013) The benefits now are as much as £140.8m expenditure in Scotland reliant on deer management. (ADMG 2023)

All this in a week to two-week trip. This will be happening all over Scotland to a larger or lesser extent during the Game Season.

Be it Deer Stalking or Game Shooting.

Sadly, our ‘government’ in Edinburgh doesn’t seem to realise the value of our Field Sports. And they seem happy to treat our Deer as vermin.

Allowing stags no close season to recover after the rut and through the Winter.

People with no experience of the rural world are passing laws that affect the Fauna and Flora as well as Rural populations.

They are advised by people or groups with agendas – be it animal rights or to  claim millions of pounds of grant/lottery money – to be wasted on conservation projects that are never going to succeed.

Some of the projects are never meant to succeed as they are just a cash cow for these people.

I think I and my generation have sadly seen the best years. Let us hope not and that common sense returns.

Greg Latham is a retired gamekeeper.