Fife roebucks are among Scotland’s undiscovered stalking gems. Steven Wade runs a deerstalking business, Woodmill Shootings, from Woodmill House, Lindores, Fife, and thinks that the east of Scotland has some of the best roe stalking anywhere in Europe.
With agreements to hunt over 30,000 acres of woodland, forestry and farmland, he is able to offer a remarkable stalking experience and, while there are no guarantees, his guests tend to take away trophy heads of the highest quality.
While also offering opportunities to hunt red deer and fallow, it is with roe that Steven’s genuine passion lies. He says that the experience of being out with a stalker on the open hill was in part responsible for his own passion for the sport.
Originally from Hampshire, Steven moved to Scotland in 1984. He quickly found a mystique in stalking that did not exist in pheasants and pigeons – the other shooting sports in which he had been involved. He says: “What I quickly discovered about stalking was its pace and the tradition – the pride that a stalker takes in his deer, the relationship between laird and stalker, and guest and stalker, the respect shown for the stalker’s skill and expertise, the subtleties and manners that are a part of a day on the hill.” From his base in Fife, Steven combines his stalking business with agricultural contracting. Over eight months each year he lets around 25 weeks of stalking, with guests coming for a minimum of three nights. He says that for the sport that he offers there is unprecedented demand at the top end of the market, with a significant number of visitors coming from across Europe.
“A lot of British sportsmen will pay £1,000 per day or more to shoot grouse or large volumes of pheasant, but not many will pay that to stalk deer, whereas the opposite is the case for those coming from northern Europe.
“Foreign guests want impressive trophies and, for roe stalking, the east of Scotland is one of the hunting world’s best kept secrets,” he says. “A lot of landowners just don’t realise the value of this resource – there are a lot of good roe heads that just end up in bins at the side of the road because those who are shooting them don’t recognise their value.
“Anything with antlers has always had tremendous appeal with the Danish market and the Danes are now spending freely in pursuit of the world’s best hunting experience. Typically – and we know this from our guests – they will enjoy a week at the roe, one week in South Africa, and one week, usually August, hunting at home in Scandinavia.”
Of future prospects, Steven says: “Demand for hunting in this part of Scotland from the Scandinavian countries has increased dramatically, although the credit crunch may yet impact there. However, currently our deposits for 2009 and 2010 are good. Our business is not high volume, and our guests are, I would say, relatively recession proof.” So how does Steven and his business Woodmill Shootings, which employs two additional stalkers, ensure that there are good heads for his paying guests to shoot? He says: “Landowners here have varying degrees of tolerance towards roe deer. Some owners value them and allow me only a small quota.
Others regard them as pests because they see them as impacting on their other management objectives such as farming or forestry.
“Counts and management plans [of roe deer] are less formalised [than with Scottish red deer herds]. We have a good idea of what the holding capacity of the land over which we stalk is, but the question of roe deer densities generally is totally subjective. Some landowners complain that they have too many, but they may be double or triple counting.” The success of Steven’s stalking business relies on him enabling his guests to see deer in numbers, and to shoot them selectively.
He says it is important to remember that sport like this might on the one hand be management, but it is also entertainment.
Numbers of deer seen in a natural environment are important, not numbers shot.
The Association of Deer Management Groups (ADMG) is currently exploring the possibility of setting up a new low-ground DMG in Fife where its chairman, Robert Balfour, is based (at Little Kinloch, less than two miles from Woodmill). For further information about ADMG contact Robert Balfour on 01337 857437.
