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They come from the East, they migrate west across Scotland ahead of the frost and they stop where it’s warm. You can shoot them anywhere in Scotland but never in such large numbers as on the West Coast island of Islay.
You may see them on your own shoot in ones and twos. On Islay, off Scotland, you see them in their hundreds or more. Gavin Doyle, who used to own the 5,000-acre Foreland estate on Islay, must be one of the only people in the UK who has shot more woodcock than pheasants. “You can put a dog in to a big gorse bush and seven or eight woodcock will burst out,” he says. “All you will hear is their wingbeats.” Gavin has, however, this warning for visiting guns: “If you’re going up there, you have to understand that if the weather’s wrong, you will still see more woodcock than you would elsewhere but it’s not driven pheasant so you may be disappointed. But keep going up there. One day you will catch it right.” Gavin says that there is nothing to compare to shooting woodcock on Islay when the weather and other variables are right. “You want a hard frost on the Scottish mainland to drive them to Islay (which rarely freezes), a full moon, a clear day when they arrive and a breeze to make them move,” says Gavin. “You also need good dogs and a host who knows the country. The birds sit tight, especially in bad weath er. A bad dog will do each gorse bush too fast.” Woodcock shooting on Islay is second-to- none due to a special set of circumstances. It has the right mix of shelter, food and respite from the ravages of cold for the birds. They like land grazed by cattle and Islay’s mild climate and free draining ground allows the cattle to be overwintered outside. This in turn makes the pastures attractive for foraging longbills after the ‘May worm’, a term used to describe the high worm count in the ground. The expansive bog myrtle and forestry plantations provide shelter for the birds. Islay sits in the middle of the North Atlantic Drift, a branch of the warm Gulf Stream current that runs up the Irish Sea. The migratory birds put weight back on and recover from their flight across the sea in just a few days. A couple of years ago the crew of a Cornish fishing boat witnessed a tragic scene. They were in the waters off Islay after scallops. One night there was a violent storm. The next day the fishermen saw the sea covered in the corpses of thousands of drowned woodcock. The birds had been migrating from their arctic summer residences and had got caught in the storm. Woodcock fly just a few feet above the waves, using the troughs as shelter from the gale force winds. These ones must have been wetted by spray and downed into the foaming sea. Woodcock are a strange bird with mysterious habits and an unpredictable flight pattern. They are nimble on the ground in addition to being infuriatingly difficult in the air. A woodcock can outrun a spaniel around a tree or through the cover. They will run across the top of the heather like a lily-trotter across lily pads. They are like the will-o’-the-wisp that can disappear in an instant. The Islay estates have the best of the shooting. The woodcock come to the 50,000- acre Islay Estate, the biggest on the island, in large numbers. The woods were laid out for woodcock shooting, with numerous rides for the guns to stand in and short drives. The estate offers occasional rough days. Up to 10 guns can stay in a self-catering farmhouse overlooking Loch Skerrols or six guns in the Bridgend Hotel. The second biggest estate, next door to Islay, also offers shooting. The 20,000-acre Laggan Estate changed hands in the 1990s and the new owners are working hard to make it great again, basing it around self-catering accommodation. It offers driven pheasant, partridge and duck – and woodcock, with a good bag in the 30s. Friends of banking scion Bruno Schroder, whose company Dunlossit Farming owns 17,000 acres on Islay, may have a day or two. Dunlossit used to let days, too. Bruno’s ex- wife is the well-known shooting author Piffa Schroder. Wildlife artist Will Garfit has shot there, too. He says: “I think what was exciting about the days at Dunlossit was that, rather than a pheasant shoot with a few woodcock, it was a woodcock shoot with a few pheasants. The whole plan was around the woodcock, with a enthusiastic team. “It’s an exciting island because all the estates and all the keepers are not only friends but many are related. Every sporting day is the culmination of everybody on the island getting together to make it happen. “It’s an island with a tremendous number of species to make the sport. The day before we did the main woodcock driving day, I went with one other gun and the keeper out in a hooly of a gale and found a few snipe on a loch, a pheasant that got out of a rushy bit and some woodcock on a bank. That whole day was made by the wildness of the landscape and the wildness of the game.” The fourth biggest estate on the island, the 14,000-acre Ardtalla & Kintour, offers accommodation but all the shooting is reserved for the owners and their friends. It averages between 60 and 100 woodcock in a year. It puts down pheasants, too. It’s hard to have a shoot that’s good for both pheasant and woodcock. “You can encourage the woodcock in by cutting rides in woodland,” says Gavin. “But if you tramp through it every couple of weeks for pheas- ant, the woodcock won’t come.” The RSPB owns 5,000 acres around Loch Gruinart. It does not offer shooting either. All the other estates have fewer than 5,000 acres. Originally from Surrey, Mark Piper has shot on Islay for 18 years and has run a shooting business there for the last eight. He owns the 1,000-acre Gearach Forest, which he bought in the late 1990s, “after having taken shooting parties out and experienced fabulous bags of woodcock off the ground. When the ground came up for sale I couldn’t resist it.” “Woodcock shooting is not judged by numbers but by the quality of the sport,” says Mark, enthusiastically. “You will remember every successful shot you have at woodcock. If a gun judges the day by the numbers shot then perhaps they shouldn’t be thinking of going on a woodcock shoot.” Mark recalls three Americans who came over to shoot woodcock on the Gearach. By the end of the week, he says, they had had 297 shots for three woodcock. They immediately rebooked for this season because they had such a fantastic time. The chance of a right and left on Islay is high – provided you can shoot.
How to get there and where to stay There is a flight from Glasgow Airport to Islay twice a day on weekdays and one on Saturdays. Prices can be reasonable – £120 return Gatwick-Glasgow-lslay. Since the twin towers debacle it has been difficult to transport firearms and especially ammunition on some of the smaller aircraft. Check with the carrier. On the Glasgow-lslay flight there is a separate hold so visitors don’t have this problem and carriage is guaranteed. Don’t let your booking agent fob you off. There’s a ferry from Kennacraig (on the mainland) to Port Ellen on Islay twice a day. A car and driver is £97.40 on a five-day special. Extra passengers are about £13 each. Most of the woodcock shoots offer their own accommodation, but the Bruichladdich distillery also has seven double rooms at £40/ night B&B. The only private distillery on the island – since 2001 when Mark Reynier and his shareholders bought it – Bruichladdich counts most of the sporting estates of Islay among its investors, including Ardtalla, Laggan and Dunlossit. www.bruichladdich.com Laggan Estate has self-catering accommodation for either four, six or 10 people with shooting including duck flighting, salmon, red and roe deer. Walked-up days cost £100+VAT per gun with a minimum four guns. 01496 810235 www.lagganestate.co.uk Shooting trips from Burnside Lodge in Port Wemyss concentrate on morning and evening flighted woodcock and wild duck with walked-up snipe during the lighter part of the day. It offers four days of shooting from late October to the end of January for £500 per person. Full board accommodation is available for an additional £250 per person for the time of your stay. 01496 860296 www.burnsidelodge.co.uk For the 1,000-acre Gearach forest on the western point of the island, contact Mark and Eleanor Piper: 01496 850120, 07786 906472 or www.thegearach.co.uk.
What to take It may be mild but Islay can be blowy and wet. You need to have good gear and a change of outfit. Having stood in the driving rain all day you then need a dry set of gear to put on for the next day while your first set is drying out. Mark Piper advises a coat with a storm hood incorporated (rather than a hat) and a good pair of breathable over trousers. For your feet, Mark suggests good hiking boots rather than wellies. He uses Scarpa or Meindle boots with Berghaus Yeti gaiters over the top. The gaiters are waterproof and have rubber toes which protect the leather boots from the heather and myrtle. Finally, Mark advises to bring a stout walking stick. The ground is rough on the feet, with tussocky grass and stems trying to trip you up. The stick gives you extra balance. |
