“On Saturday, we had our last grouse shoot of the season. Grouse are one of the few totally wild game birds still around in the UK, and though we had a good spring we have decided to not to shoot any more this year to leave a good breeding stock for next year. We had a fabulous day in testing windy conditions, and I now have four young grouse in the fridge waiting to be plucked; the rest have either been given to the other guns or sold to the game dealer. Grouse are one of my favourite foods and although plucking them can be a bit of a bore, they are definitely worth the effort. Young roast grouse cooked so it’s still slightly pink is delicious.

When I took over the estate there was hardly a grouse on the place, but with the hard work and dedication of my two gamekeepers, we have started to rebuild a good stock of grouse. In fact this year, although we are still talking small numbers, we have managed to shoot more on the estate than for the previous 20 years. That has given us all renewed enthusiasm to keep going, and keep improving the moorland habitat.

We have been helped this year by the wonderful spring with its mixture of sun and showers, which was perfect for insect life which is what young chicks eat before they are big enough to digest heather. The other key elements are good quality heather and lots of it. Grouse love heather! They eat it, sleep in it, hide in it and nest in it. As implausible as it sounds (being in Scotland) heather does not like too much wet. It likes well drained ground, and as old drains and ditches on the estate, dug over 100 years ago, start to block and the ground gets water logged, rushes start growing and the heather dies away. This spring we are already planning to start re-digging some of the ditches and drains in a hope to increase the heather coverage on the hill. Already where we have restricted the sheep grazing, heather is starting to re-grow very quickly.

The other thing that likes the heather is bees. During the summer we have quite a number of beehives, put on the hill by local bee keepers. The hives are put them out on the hill in June as the bell heather starts to bloom, they then collect the hives again at the end of September as the last of the “ling” or common heather bloom starts to fade. In return they give us quite a few pots of heather honey which is delicious, especially when you know it’s come from your own heather! The hives have now started to be collected so I know that, despite a lovely two weeks of weather, autumn will soon be on us.”