Today we awoke to a glen (valley) filled with mist and drizzle – funny that for Scotland… We trooped off to the gunroom, filled our gun bags with cartridges, slipped the shotguns into their cases and headed back to the Landies to await Fred’s verdict on whether or not we will be heading into the moors (hills) to do another grouse drive with the guests. As it seemed that the mist was lifting towards the tops of the hills and the drizzle had stopped Fred decided that we would head out and at least attempt the drives before the weather again changed tack. What we didn’t take into account was the wind – it was screaming like a banshee along the ridges and as the teams hunkered down behind the butts I was wondering how the grouse would react to being put up in this wind. I wasn’t kept waiting for long as the sound of guns along the line started a staccato tattoo as the shooters attempted to bag grouse coming over the line. Incredibly we only managed to get two and a half brace (five birds) between all the guns over a 45 minute shoot! With the wind behind them the grouse are winging their way at a spectacular speed along the contours of the hills and with a very limited field of view the shotists need to react extremely fast in order to even get a shot off, never mind an accurate one.

After doing two drives (the second of which ended in driving rain and strong wind) we headed back to the lodge for lunch and a vague attempt at drying out. At last the son made a determined attempt at squeezing through the mist and it warmed up a little. We then headed back the moors for a last drive of the day which proved far more successful than those in the morning. The day’s bag was in the region of 40 which all things considered was a very respectable tally.