Mainpicture:Lammermuirsgrouseskimtheheather
atunnervingspeed.Above:butaretheyfasterthan
birdsatAllenheadsacrosstheBorder?or Weardale – are as good as any in Scot-
land. Having seen hordes of grouse with a
breeze behind them swarming towards the
butts at High Crags on Wemmergill, 2,400ft
above sea level, I would have to agree.
Topography is everything; grouse are ter-
ritorial and hefted to certain areas within a
moor, and how they adapt to fl ying in their
natural environment, steep or fl at ground,
will infl uence the way they perform on a
driven day. Loosely speaking, grouse are
‘softer’ on lower altitudes but there are
moors on both sides of the Border where
the grouse are ‘tamer’ and, indeed, there are
drives or lines of butts within moors, where
grouse are presented to provide completely
different shooting challenges.
Mayshiel in the Lammermuirs is an
example; the ground is undulating and gen-
tly sloping where Mayshiel itself marches
with the Earl of Haddington’s Johnscleugh
and grouse here seem to skim inches above
the heather at unnerving speed, rocketing
20ft into the air as they reach the butt line.
Move through the estate to the beats on
Fasney and you are in an entirely differentlandscape, which could be anywhere on any
of the steepest ground in the Highlands. In
particular, the famous line of almost per-
pendicular butts known as Cardiac Climb,
where the grouse come at all angles, swoop-
ing like swallows round the side of the hill
and whipping over guns at the last moment.
Simon Thorp, the director of the Heather
Trust from 2002 until 2018 and now a