Women’ s shooting club draws a bead on new activities

Awomen’s shooting club in Aberdeenshire has branched out further into the events market.

Mhairi Morriss, of Midmar, near Echt, has run Glad Rags and Cartridge Bags – focused on clay shooting, but also miniHighland games, archery, team building, whisky and gin tasting – since 2014.

She has now added Glad Rags Events, as well as Glad Rags and Fishing Rods, Glad Rags and Dog Leads, Glad Rags and Floral Creations and Glad Rags and Gardening Gloves in an attempt to capture demand for a much wider range of activities.

In doing so, she draws from considerable previous experience of organising events, starting with the Hot Cross Bouncing Bunny Ball – a black-tie ball for 500 people – which raised £5,000 for the Edinburgh branch of the Red Cross, for which she was commercial manager at the time.

Ms Morriss said: “Despite all the challenges due to you know what and the ever-changing guidelines and restrictions to be followed, Scotland’s premier all-female shooting club, Glad Rags and Cartridge Bags, has come out the other side.

“It is not only still here but thriving – new inquiries are coming in continually, events are selling out, we have very happy sponsors, and the Glad Rags brand is expanding.”

Covid-19 brought Glad Rags to a standstill last year, she said, adding: “No one on the planet could have had any idea, in March 2020, what we were about to go through.

“Cartridge Bags is all about face-to-face events, and like many businesses, it came to a grinding halt one week after our family day saw record numbers attending Barra Castle.

“But the first lockdown gave me the time to think about how I wanted to expand the business, how to improve what we were offering and to plan for when we were able to get back to what we all love – challenging ourselves, adventures, and learning something new, as well as spending time with old friends and meeting new ones”.

By following all the guidelines and adapting their clay shooting days, the Cartridge Bags women were able to hold many shooting events before the next lockdown. These included “Glad Rags and Tiaras”, with royal permission, on the Queen’s private estate at Delnadamph in Upper Donside.

Ms Morriss said: “With the second lockdown in place, two feet of snow outside the front door, the swimming pools shut and no taxi duty for our children, I had no excuse not to put the ideas I had buzzing around in my head into reality, to expand the business and develop a new website.”

She added: “If it wasn’t for the continued support and encouragement from our tremendous sponsors Country Ways, Weatherby’s Private Bank, Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP, Shepherd and Wedderburn, Station Garage Mitsubishi and Brewin Dolphin, as well as the amazing ladies of Cartridge Bags, I might not have been so brave and taken this leap of faith to expand.

“It would definitely not have happened without the financial assistance from VisitScotland’s Events Industry Support Fund.”

EVENT HORIZON: Mhairi Morriss extended her range of businesses during lockdown.