By Hugh Brady
Setters & Shooting in Glen Prosen International FTCh Snipe Ch Ballydavid Starjet producing a well-sized covey of grouse.
D
uring these appalling times, never have magazines and shooting books been as important, particularly for the older generations. Over Christmas, I gifted Douglas Butlers book “Rough Shooting in Ireland” to a close friend. With the rolling lockdowns, the evocative imagery of wheeling teal circling ponds by the light of the moon, to the explosion of a cock pheasant from auburn bracken transported my friend to his younger days shooting in wild, untamed places. The only downside to the book in fact was the mourning when it was finished. Escapism was always important and I remember being drawn to images of the Highlands in Scotland with ponies carrying red deer off the mountain faces. I was particularly attracted to the tweed clad shooting parties trying their hand at the king of all game-birds, the red grouse with the heather in full bloom and the sheer majesty of the terrain.
I have been fortunate to work my setters for guns in Scotland for a number of years but this article refers to one of my trips across to Glen Prosen estate. The estate manager Bruce Cooper organises dates at an early stage. Glen Prosen has been written about on numerous occasions in shooting journals as it is one of the MacNab estates having access to great salmon fishing on the river Tay, herds of magnificent red deer roam the estate at times during the year while the estate also provides both driven and walked up grouse shooting. The 21,000 acres managed by the estate is situated in the heart of the Angus Glens and touches the world famous Cairngorms National Park. Packing for a week or so of dogging is no easy task especially when you are fitting most of the gear required into a roof box. A team of six Irish setters, including two pups of twelve months would also have to be fitted. We would
be working the dogs for a week in Glen Prosen, therefore also requiring several changes of clothes.
Birds are mature and weather is unlikely to ever cancel the days There is always relief when you are seated on the ferry and the boat is gently moving towards Scotland. Normally your thoughts drift to weather forecasts as when counting poor weather either wind or rain can negate the entire trip. Shooting is different in that birds are mature and weather is unlikely to ever cancel the days. While the journey is long to the North East of Scotland, it is unfamiliar and Stirling Castle is a dramatic landmark. It is one of the largest and most important castles in Scotland, both historically and architecturally. The castle sits on top of Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by these
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