During the winter months, through to the middle of February, the focus is on the red deer hinds.

Culling deer is an essential part of Scottish land management that benefits not only moorlands but also farmland and other habitats.

Left unchecked, deer numbers would reach the point where the Highlands of Scotland would be heavily over-grazed – moors would become grassland and forests would fail as saplings were grazed and recruitment prevented.

Agricultural returns would also decline as sheep and cattle compete with deer for adequate grazing. In this scenario, the health of the deer would also decline as they ran out of food.

A small part of the cull, especially the stags, is undertaken by paying guests who the stalker is responsible for.

Otherwise, the stalker often works alone, but as part of a group of neighbouring keepers to ensure an efficient and effective cull.

In the following four to six weeks, the moors see their most busy time with people traveling from all over the world to shoot the red grouse whose explosive burst of speed (up to 40 m.p.h. plus any tail wind) provides a real challenge for the ‘guns’.

The grouse shoot may be a very formal affair with beaters being employed to drive the grouse towards the guns who sit behind the cover of butts.

   "Red grouse season
      opens on the
         Glorious Twelfth..."

Alternatively, a more informal ‘walked up’ shoot may be arranged where dogs are commonly used to flush the grouse up in front of the guns who walk across the moor in a line.

However, there is evidence to indicate that the control of some predators by moorland gamekeepers aids a number of notable ground-nesting birds – most notably the golden plover. Ground-nesting birds are particularly vulnerable because they are open to predation by birds such as crows and earth-bound mammals such as the fox.

The role of moorland gamekeeper is obviously a job with many elements that are an essential part of the maintenance of our moorlands that are almost unique and of undoubted, international conservation importance.

Gamekeepers as Conservationists

A third of these keepers had conservation projects on their ground and some of their other activities, such as planting seed-crops for game birds, have obvious benefits for other species.

This sort of work is likely to expand into the future for gamekeepers, many of whom are now college-trained and exposed to modern ways of thinking about the landscape.

Although the persecution of raptors shall continue to be a contentious issue, the other activities undertaken by gamekeepers are of undoubted importance in the rural landscape, despite the lack of positive publicity that they attract.

As such, it is rather unreasonable to consider gamekeepers as nothing more than a murderous mob set on the destruction of ‘vermin’. A more informed appraisal of their activities would indicate that gamekeepers are the ‘custodians of the countryside’.