Sarah Lewis
Deer stalker
Sarah worked as a deer stalker for the John Muir Trust, and is currently setting up a business to provide a deeper connection with nature. She shares her experience of what it’s like to work as a stalker on the hill.
“The wild land charity I used to work for was and still is robustly involved in the improvement of deer management. When I first got interested in stalking, I was already on the hill day-to-day, monitoring habitat and seasonal impact. Stalking allowed me finer insight into the broader 360° of the deer management world.
“I was incredibly fortunate, as the best stalker in the trade took me on as his informal apprentice. His enthusiasm, precision and balanced approach was magnetising. Of course, I had to cover the DSC (Deer Stalking Certificate) Level 1 and Level 2, which are a great framework, but it’s the experiences and knowledge my teacher/s shared with me that stood me in the best stead. Typically, the Highland glens I stalked were steep and craggy, no good for all-terrain vehicles
or ponies; I was taught to carry the carcass on my back like a rucksack, sometimes having to butcher quarry on the hill, such was the dynamic character of what we were doing.
“I came from a climbing and mountaineering background, so was used to finding ‘grrrr and grind’ with ‘flow and gentle-footedness’. Being female in a masculine associated activity was colourful. I remember going to a deer management meeting once and being asked if I was there for the catering! The challenges encountered I now see as allies. Any place where we want to make change means we find ourselves in new and uncomfortable situations. Deer management in both the physical and mental opened up an entirely new reality for me.
“You become the animal that you are stalking; you follow its tracks, consider its movement. You come to second-guess its route choice, use the air, the land, the subtleties that we seldom use day to day to think and behave like a deer. In order to take any shot, I was fully immersed in the exactness of what I was doing. If you ignore your breathing, you and the deer your crosshair is on will end up a mess. From the instant you step out of your vehicle, your environment is feeding you with information to base your decisions on. They’d be times when I wouldn’t take a shot, especially when I knew I was having an accident-prone day!
“Doing it taught me that we have to learn to utilise our entire bodies more and wake up all of our senses. We have much to learn from and experience within these landscapes, they’re not just here for our visual pleasure.”