‘Glorious’ 12th gets season off to wet start

IT may have been the 12th but the weather was anything but glorious when the UK grouse shooting season opened yesterday.

The ‘Glorious Twelfth’ marks the start of the season, which runs from August 12 to December 10, but experts say damp weather and some late snow could have affected bird numbers on the moorlands.

TV chef Nick Nairn marked the start of the season at Abercairny estate in Crieff, Perthshire, where he joined a shooting party before preparing some grouse to offer to locals from a gourmet food van.

He was joined by tourists from France, estate staff and gamekeepers, and said he was ‘delighted’ to get the grouse season off to a good start.

He added: ‘Grouse is a worldclass product. It is one of the finest things you will ever taste.’

The first shot of the day came from French tourist Jann Jallerat,

‘Finest things you will ever taste’

followed by his son Louis, 17, who shot his first-ever grouse.

Louis said: ‘It’s incredible to hunt the grouse because it’s something only in Scotland, so it’s cool to do that.’

The start of the grouse shooting season has reignited the debate over the sport’s role in protecting the countryside.

The Scottish Gamekeepers Association said the economic contribution of shooting has never been more important.

Tim Baynes, director of the Scottish Land & Estates Moorland Group, said: ‘There is the tradition aspect, but it is also very modern and important to a rural economy, and especially in these remote areas where there are almost no other forms of income. That’s a very important thing for Scotland.’

Animal charity OneKind said there is ‘nothing glorious’ about the ‘brutal slaughter’ of tens of thousands of birds.