SCOTLAND: Stalking Red Stags in the Highlands!

[kevin masters]

Well gentle men the wife and I were fortunate to visit Scotland in october as part of celebrating our anniversary.
My wife has always wanted to see scotland and so this year we were able to make it happen. We flew united
through chicago to Edinburough. When I was planning this trip I came across a travel agency in scotland that
said they book all types of Scottish holidays including various outdoor adventures. When I inquired they told me
they could set me with a proffesional stalker for as many days as I like targeting several species from red stag to
fallow and roe deer. Now like I said this was a anniversary trip not a hunting trip so I asked my wife what she thought and she said as long as I could keep her entertained elswhere she was fine with the idea. So I booked two weeks worth of accomadations and two days stalking in perthshire while we were staying close by in Dunkeld.
We landed on oct 5th sunday morning. picked up our rental and headed to sterling. We visited sterling castle and
the William Wallace monument both of which were very interesting! A tropical storm had hit the west coast the day before we arrived and took out the power to the Isle of Eriska reort where we were supposed to spend our first two nights. Alex at River and green was already ahead of it and rebooked us at a five star castle on the outside of Glasgow. My wife was thrilled staying in a castle our first night in Scotland. Seeing the actual sword of William wallace was my highlight for the day!

 

[Red Leg]

Write and post faster.

 

[kevin masters]

The next day we drove to glenfinnan and enjoyed the incredible scenery, visited the glennfinnan viaduct? has something to do with Harry Potter. From ther we traveled to the Isle of sky.
Very ruggedly beautiful place with incredible ocean views! lots of sheep.
When we left Sky we went to Lochness on our way to inverness. Did all the tourist stuff around the loch and enjoyed a great night out in inverness. visited Eileen Donan castle during all of this and it was also beautiful and rich in history. was also in the film highlander and the world is not enough.

 

[Altitude sickness]

You had me at Red Stag in Scotland.

 

[Firebird]

 

[Altitude sickness]

Any trout fishing in the areas you visited ?

 

[Mekaniks]

 

[kevin masters]

The next day we headed to Dunkeld. We spent three days here two of which were my stalking days!
our first day in Dunkeld we backtracked to Glennfidich distillery the largest in Scotland and they have a lot. It was a very impressive distillery and I live in bourbon country (seen a few).
The next Day was my first stalking day. I got up really early and drove twenty miles in the dark on the wrong side of the road in the wrong side of the car. Now I was fairly accustomed to the driving by now just hadn't done much in the dark with a need to be somewhere specific at a certain time. Took me forty minutes but I was still early. Pulled into the parking lot of a small grocery and immediately saw several trucks with hunting guys standing around. I parked and got out looking like an idiot in my camo raincoat. But at least it told them who I was. A gentleman came over and introduced himself as Jimmy
Lambie and told me he would be taking me out stalking. I followed him about ten minutes to a small lane parked the rental and climbed in with him. We started climbing immediately and gained a lot in elevation. This gave me hope that I could handle the climb. After a few gates and thirty minutes or so of driving we stopped. had really good conversation with Jimmy and his helper John during this ride.
We got out of the truck and you couldn't see thirty yards. the mist was thick! We almost immediately started hearing roaring! I was beside myself. Jimmy said the fog was bad and we couldn't stalk stags if we couldn't see them. He said we might have to wait a couple of hours. I was fine with that hearing roars all around was incredible!!!
It has gotten light and I can see outlines of the mountain occasionally. I asked if we were going to the top and jimmy says no probably half way and then we would work side to side. We took off and I swear these guys are jogging, lol. Not really but I struggled to keep up. After an hour I had to stop I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. Jimmy laughed and said don't die on me I'll have to walk back to the truck for a shovel. We climbed for two more hours with lots of breaks with me lying on the ground! We finally came out of the mist and the views were unbelievable. Jimmy was a liar we were at the top. I layed down and tried to recover while jimmy started walking around the crest. we saw several stags mostly hinds but some nice bucks. We walked over the top and saw one really big boy and jimmy says we don't shoot them. It had been explained to me that this was a cull hunt and i completely understood. We made our way along the crest looking over occasionally until jimmy motioned for everyone to get down. no problem for me welcomed rest. Jimmy crawled down and tells me there is a stag lying down about two hundred and fifty yards out. He goes back up and glasses for a while then crawls back down and says this is the one we are looking for.
we crawled about thirty yards down and jimmy looks over again. He comes back and says the stag is up and walking towards us. we move down another thirty yards and jimmy eases up and looks over again. This time he tells me to follow him and we crawl maybe twenty yards and up to the crest to peer over. The stag is at about 150. jimmy eases the gun up and puts me on it. he tells me he is going to roar to stop him and for me to wait till he turns broadside. I get on the gun find him in the scope and I'm just watching hi walk along. Jimmy roars and the stag quarters away and stops looking around.
I felt comfortable with the shot so I squeezed and thump, he takes off . Jimmy yells great shot and I say are you sure I couldn't tell. he said I was watching through the binos it was a perfect shot!
We high five hug I think I cried. Man what an experience!!! WE make our way down into the fog and find him 100 yards lower than where I shot him he jumped straight over a small cliff!

 

[kevin masters]

Any trout fishing in the areas you visited ?

I did not fish but the river Tay flowed right by our hotel and is renown for trout fishing!

 

[kevin masters]

some pics from Glenfiddich

 

[BRICKBURN]

I'd like to taste that one on the upper right (top shelf).

Glad they refrained from using the shovel. Congratulations on getting a Highland Stag.

 

[kevin masters]

I'd like to taste that one on the upper right (top shelf).

Glad they refrained from using the shovel. Congratulations on getting a Highland Stag.

The bottle on the right hand side bottom shelf was 12,000 pounds 60 years old

 

[kevin masters]

Guy's I mentioned River and green was who I booked this through and I just cant say enough about the excellent service and very detailed itenerary they put together for us! Alex walked us through the proposal and thoroughly explained the entire process. He was also a phone call away when we were in country and helped with anything that arose!
Okay so my second day of stalking was a bit more relaxed we were stalking moores and meadows for fallow deer or roe or whatever presented itself. again the fog was aweful. We found some fallow hinds and one really small fallow buck and decided to pass. The hunting grounds were beautiful and the stalking pleasantly rolling!
Mid morning we saw the most georgous solid white fallow deer I have ever seen and mike ,todays stalker explains thats the only animal on the property we cant shoot! lol
We are plagued with fog all morning and it just gets worse so we call it a morning and decide to try watching the edge of a forestry block that evening. The fog only got worse in the evening so we drove to the top of the forestry block and stalked down logging roads. I would say that we wer'nt successful except it was one of coolest hunting experiences of my life. No game taken but enjoyed Gods incredible creation and marveled at its wonders!
I think we visited every castle in scotland and honestly they were all very cool! I love history and Scotland is full of it. One castle that stood out to me was inverary castle they had a very impressive display of weapons not the least of which was a collection of rifles used in the battle of collodun.
This was the last battle for independence from britain. It took place in 1746 about thirty years before we gained our indepedence. The Duke of Argyle still lives at inverary castle!
The rest of our time was spent in edinburough wich was very interesting but Im not really a big city guy.
Overall great trip, with just enough stalking to whet the whistle. I think I'll see Scotland again!