Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait - Deer Stalking in Scotland. Getting Ready

The Land Reform Bill is expected to end tax relief for shooting estates and to force the sale of land if its owners are blocking economic development. So are the hunters about to be turned the hunted? Deer stalking and grouse shooting provide jobs, mostly low paid and seasonal, and the land could support more jobs in other economic activities such as forestry, farming, and tourism.

The problem is that the sporting estate owner is all powerful – owning most of the land and able to pay twice the going rate, more

than a local farmer. He can simply say No to change.

Te problem is that the sporting estate owner is all powerful – owning most of the land and able to pay twice the going rate. He can simply say No to change.

Most estates are loss-making and happy to be so - owners don’t come to the Highlands in August to run a successful business – they are here for fun and can always deduct their losses from their Scotish estate from the profits of their real businesses in London .

Sporting estates are also not here to supply healthy sustainable food such as venison. Rather they exist to provide enjoyment from the ritualised killing of wild animals. Indeed, hunting for food is disparaged and discouraged - according to your typical sporting gentleman, hunting for food is something only poachers do!

Sporting estates strive hard to be socially exclusive. As a veteran land reformer, Andy Wightman argues that the

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August 2015