Glen Etive restrictions

Alan Wilson said:

Anyone heading to Glen Etive between now and end of October
should be aware that there is a red deer stag cull under way. The main
effected route is from the river Etive nn135460 up Allt nam Meirleach to the
col @ nn139424. There is an area map @
Coileitir bridge which gives further details of the routes to be avoided. I
can just about remember all the East side open routes..So if ayone wants
more details let me know.

There is a red deer stag "cull" going on in most of the highlands at
present. The stag season lasts until the 20th of October and during
this period estates will like to make as much money as possible by
letting the shooting rights to rich people to bag a stag. To call it
a cull is possibly stretching it a bit, I like to think of it as a
selective thinning out. In most cases there are still too many deer on
the land.

What estates are supposed to do is post a notice saying where they are
stalking that day or week and not rely on blanket bans for the entire
season. There is by tradition no stalking on Sundays so in theory you
can go where you like on the Lord's Day, but some estates would rather
you kept off the hill then as well to avoid disturbing the deer.

After the stag season the hinds get their turn to be shot at until the
20th of February but as there is less money in shooting hinds (though
more skill as the weather is poorer and the target smaller) estates
tend not to mind as much if a stalk is disturbed.

Useful information about Stalking activity can be had from the
Hillphones scheme http://www.hillphones.info/

Or check with the estates concerned. Contact info can be found on the
Who Owns Scotland site http://www.whoownsscotland.org.uk/
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

"Phil Cook" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Useful information about Stalking activity can be had from the
Hillphones scheme http://www.hillphones.info/

Or check with the estates concerned. Contact info can be found on the
Who Owns Scotland site http://www.whoownsscotland.org.uk/

And http://www.walkingwild.com/Stalking if you can get it to download.

The message <[email hidden]>
from Phil Cook <[email hidden]> contains
these words:

Quoted message said:

There is by tradition no stalking on Sundays so in theory you
can go where you like on the Lord's Day, but some estates would rather
you kept off the hill then as well to avoid disturbing the deer.

I don't know if the law is different in Scotland but in England and
Wales (IIRC) you an only shoot vermin on a Sunday. I don't think deer
are classified as vermin.

--
Roger Chapman so far this year 47 summits
New - 25 (Marilyns 8, Sweats 5, Outlying Fells 14)
Repeats - 22( Marilyns 7, Sweats 12, Wainwrights 16)

Phil, et al,
The information sign at Coileitir bridge specifically
mentions stalking on Saturdays aand Sundays.
You are right about the renting of shooting rights. The group I met on
Thurday appeared to consist of one 'local' and two 'clients' - who were
certainly not local. Fortunately, for the deer, the trio didn't get a shot
off all afternoon.

AW

Phil, et al,
The information sign at Coileitir bridge specifically
mentions stalking on Saturdays aand Sundays.
You are right about the renting of shooting rights. The group I met on
Thurday appeared to consist of one 'local' and two 'clients' - who were
certainly not local. Fortunately, for the deer, the trio didn't get a shot
off all afternoon.

AW

"Phil Cook" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

To call it
a cull is possibly stretching it a bit, I like to think of it as a
selective thinning out.

What's a cull then?

"Mark South" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

"Phil Cook" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

To call it
a cull is possibly stretching it a bit, I like to think of it as a
selective thinning out.

What's a cull then?

An indiscriminate thinning out?
[I can't distinguish either]

--
Adrian

Adrian Tupper said:

"Mark South" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

"Phil Cook" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

To call it
a cull is possibly stretching it a bit, I like to think of it as a
selective thinning out.

What's a cull then?

An indiscriminate thinning out?
[I can't distinguish either]

OK then. What I meant to infer was that a meaningful cull would
involve rather more animals being shot to reduce the population rather
than just keeping it in check. But estates wouldn't do this because it
would devalue the shooting in the short term and the resultant
reduction in deer numbers would let the trees grow back and make
stalking harder in the long term.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

"Phil Cook" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Adrian Tupper said:

"Mark South" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

"Phil Cook" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message news:[email hidden]...

> To call it
> a cull is possibly stretching it a bit, I like to think of it as a
> selective thinning out.

What's a cull then?

An indiscriminate thinning out?
[I can't distinguish either]

OK then. What I meant to infer was that a meaningful cull would
involve rather more animals being shot to reduce the population rather
than just keeping it in check.

In Africa they conduct culls for various reasons, often to keep the population
to a fixed size, or to establish a particular shape to the population's
demographic distribution.

Quoted message said:

But estates wouldn't do this because it
would devalue the shooting in the short term and the resultant
reduction in deer numbers would let the trees grow back and make
stalking harder in the long term.

OK, you might not approve of the theory or the practice, but it might still be a
cull according to accepted usage.

Adrian and I weren't arguing with your views on deer management, just wondering
why you explicitly objected to the use of the term "cull" in this instance when
it generally means removal of a certain predetermined fraction of the
population, as appears to be the case here.
--
Mark South, Super Genius: World Citizen, Net Denizen

What's the camping situation like in Glen Etive? Might pop down there
for a day or two when I'm up that neck of the woods in a couple of
weeks.

A brief search on the www hasn't revealed too much. I presume there's
no official campsites, but that wild-camping is tolerated?

Having said that, we'll probably have the car with us. So maybe I
should re-phrase: what's the situation with camping, and is there
anywhere to park the car overnight?

Cheers,

Michael S

Roger said:

The message <[email hidden]>
from Phil Cook <[email hidden]> contains
these words:

Quoted message said:

There is by tradition no stalking on Sundays so in theory you
can go where you like on the Lord's Day, but some estates would rather
you kept off the hill then as well to avoid disturbing the deer.

I don't know if the law is different in Scotland but in England and
Wales (IIRC) you an only shoot vermin on a Sunday. I don't think deer
are classified as vermin.

Indeed they are not. Somebody once tried to get the powers that be to
class muntjac as vermin but was told that as they were deer they were
classed as game.

As for Scotland there is no statute banning shooting of anything
except wildfowl on Sundays.

A discussion on uk.rec.shooting.game on this subject is at
http://makeashorterlink.com/?G23935749
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

"Michael S" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

What's the camping situation like in Glen Etive? Might pop down there
for a day or two when I'm up that neck of the woods in a couple of
weeks.

A brief search on the www hasn't revealed too much. I presume there's
no official campsites, but that wild-camping is tolerated?

Having said that, we'll probably have the car with us. So maybe I
should re-phrase: what's the situation with camping, and is there
anywhere to park the car overnight?

No problems whatsoever, wild camping is tolerated and parking can be found
easily. Unless the situations changed from last year;-)

Regards
Craven

Hi Michael,
There are numerous wild-ish ( just off the road, but no
facilities ) camping places between the
Glen Coe road end down the glen almost to Dalness. Beyond Dalness there's
less oppertunities, but I did notice a estate sign asking campers to use the
'camp-site' at the head of Loch Etive. Although I didn't get a chance to
recce that site, so can't comment.

Alan

"Michael S" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

What's the camping situation like in Glen Etive? Might pop down there
for a day or two when I'm up that neck of the woods in a couple of
weeks.

A brief search on the www hasn't revealed too much. I presume there's
no official campsites, but that wild-camping is tolerated?

Having said that, we'll probably have the car with us. So maybe I
should re-phrase: what's the situation with camping, and is there
anywhere to park the car overnight?

Cheers,

Michael S

"Alan" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Hi Michael,
There are numerous wild-ish ( just off the road, but no
facilities ) camping places between the
Glen Coe road end down the glen almost to Dalness. Beyond Dalness there's
less oppertunities, but I did notice a estate sign asking campers to use the
'camp-site' at the head of Loch Etive. Although I didn't get a chance to
recce that site, so can't comment.

Alan

Cheers Alan (and Craven). I've driven past that turn-off for Glen
Etive SOOOO many times on the way to/from Skye. This time I'm
definitely going to pay it a visit... Although the last time I said
that I was just crossing the Erskine Bridge (heading south after a few
days in the highlands!) when I suddenly remembered that I had
completely forgotten to turn down into Glen Etive. By which time I
couldn't be bothered to turn back.

Thanks again,

Michael S