Our 2017 challenge
The Field, in conjunction with Swarovski Optik, launches the ultimate test of sporting prowess on the Twelfth: a Macnab. Are you up to it?
The Field’s Macnab challenge, with Swarovski Optik, begins
Has the cloying ennui of mid summer ever been more apparent than it is this year? A summer of politicking, elections and more party politics than can be decently digested has brought on intellectual exhaustion in many of us. Fortunately, the cure for this enfeebling is at hand. Indeed, we expect more people than ever to rally to John Macnab’s standard and head to the hills come August for a dose of sporting exhilaration that is so much required.
To rid oneself entirely of the final vestiges of the political swamp, the tawdry city and fetid heat, a spot of fishing or chasing the odd grouse is not enough. It requires something more vigorous – such as trying for a Macnab, the ultimate sporting adventure and one
that’s bound to dispel even a thought of the vagaries of everyday life.
The Field’s Macnab Challenge takes as its starting point John Buchan’s well-known story, John Macnab (1925). The premise is simple: Sir Edward Leithen, John Palliseryeates and Lord Lamancha are bored with life and issue a challenge to a trio of Highland estates owned by three very different characters: the Rt Hon Lord Claybody (a recent grandee); Mr Bandicott (an American who has taken the house for the fishing); and Colonel Raden (a traditional Scottish landowner).
A letter signed by John Macnab duly appears at each estate stating the following: Sir, I have the honour to inform you that I propose to kill a stag [or a salmon as the case may be] on your ground between midnight on – and midnight –. The animal, of course, remains your property and will be duly delivered to you. It is a condition that it must be removed wholly outside your bounds. In the event of the undersigned failing to achieve his purpose, he will pay as
forfeit one hundred pounds and if successful fifty pounds to any charity you may appoint. I have the honour to be, your obedient servant, John Macnab.
The gently comic tale, laced with Buchan’s usual dose of derring-do and adventure, has inspired countless Macnabbers to enter
The Field’s Macnab Challenge. Last year, a home team ventured to the Isle of Harris with hopes of completing it. Those hopes were dashed but a short film capturing the attempt can be found on the Macnab website (www.macnabchallenge.co.uk).
New partner
This year, The Field is delighted to announce a new partnership for the Macnab Challenge. Swarovski Optik is renowned for making best-quality scopes and optics and
The natural harvest that results from a Macnab is ethical and sustainable
is a welcome partner for The Field’s Macnab Challenge. Accuracy, dedication and consummate skill are inherent in the Swarovski brand as they are for a successful Macnab. We look forward to putting the scopes and optics to the test on the hill come 12 August.
The Macnab Challenge is a sporting endeavour but it also provides the best wild food you will find anywhere in the world. Although most Macnabbers will see their salmon returned to the river, the natural harvest that results from a Macnab is both ethical and sustainable. When there is an opportunity to take a salmon, there is nothing more delicious than smoking it oneself, although the conservation implications of taking the fish must be fully understood by the rod.
Grouse are part of a beneficial programme of conservation and shooting that supports more than 2,500 jobs and invests an estimated £100 million in conservation. The heather moorland managed for the grouse, of which 75% is found in Britain, is “rarer than rainforest” and BASC confirms that up to five times more threatened wading birds (such as curlews) are supported on moors managed for grouse shooting.
The management that goes into the moors that support the red grouse population is immense. The gamey, dense grouse is also sublime to eat. Long held as one of the best and most delicious birds in our wild larder, grouse is now available from game dealers and those supermarkets that understand the importance of the link between what we eat and how it comes to being eaten. Your brace of Macnab grouse will be prized not only for the merit it took to make the bag but their part on the supper menu, too.
wild meat
As for the stag, the popularity of venison over the past few years is a testament to good sense. Low fat and succulent, the meat is at the opposite end of the spectrum to industrial farming and the flaccid, intensively reared meat it can produce.
The spoils of a Macnab are just as important as the skill and time invested in the attempt. To take up rod, rifle or gun the sportsman is obligated to remember the link between fun and field and fork. A healthy respect for what we eat is a vital aspect of the sporting world and The Field’s Macnab Challenge – the grouse, the stag and the salmon – are at the heart of it. To find out where to go to attempt a Macnab, for entry forms, rules and top tips and advice, visit www.macnabchallenge.co.uk