Stalking at Learney Estate in Royal Deeside

Tore Danielsen
Feb 6, 2018
5 min read

Early in August 2017, my wife Marianne and I visited Learney House in beautiful Royal Deeside in Scotland. The purpose of the visit was to attempt to shoot a roe deer buck. Learney House is a beautiful 18th Century estate in magnificent surroundings. Nowadays, the house is the headquarter for the company Scotsport, which hires the house and the hunting rights on this beautiful property. The hunting areas are vast, magnificent and are inhabited by a numerous multitude of wild game; species like roe deer, deer, pheasants, woodcock, woodpigeon, rabbits and hares. In early August, the roe deer buck is in rut, and obviously the main quarry of desire. We saw many examples of rutting during our visit.

To go stalking with a legend

The owner of the company Scotsport is the Danish gentleman Alf Sorensen. Alf has been arranging stalking and shooting in Scotland for over 30 years, primarily for Danish and Norwegian hunters. It is no exaggeration to claim that Alf is a living legend. He has been involved in the shooting of more than 1300 roe bucks in Scotland, either as shooter, or as stalker for one of his many guests, primarily from abroad. He has also participated in many hunting movies, like “Rough Shooting in Scotland” and “Highland Fever” from the producer Hunters Video. When I was working as a teacher at the Upper Secondary School KVS-Bygland in Setesdalen, Norway, I often showed my pupils these videos in my English classes, with an English soundtrack, in an attempt to improve their English skills.

We had booked two outings during this visit; a morning stalk and an evening stalk. In retrospect, I understand that this was too little. I ought to have booked at least 3, maybe 4 outings, in order to have enough time at Learney Estate. The roe deer stalking in Scotland is done differently from the way we do it back in Norway. In Scotland, the stalker is always in charge. He is the one who finds the right animal, the one who selects the buck which may be shot. He shooter follows behind the stalker in the fields and must follow all his instructions. For the morning stalk, Alf was the stalker, and I felt very privileged to stalk with such a legend. Unfortunately, the roe deer bucks were not very cooperative this morning, and they probably were exhausted after the rut the preceding night. Several of the bucks we stalked simply seemed to vanish into thin air! During the morning stalk, I got the green light from Alf, and an opportunity to shoot, but I judged the situation to be above my competence as a rifle. The terrain in which we stalked was very open and the buck spotted us from a far distance. It stared to move swiftly up the hill, crossing the purple heather. It ran, jumped and stopped only for a second or two each time, while proceeding up the hillside. Several times I had it in my sight, but a roe deer at between 100 and 150 meters is a very small target. I therefore decided to not take the shot, a decision which probably most shooters would agree with.

It is not always easy to find a six-point roe buck with a rosencrantz

On the evening stalk, one of Alf’s young co-workers was the stalker. Out on a golden wheat field the rut was commencing as a beautiful six-pointer was chasing the does in the evening sun. A hard and difficult stalk in very open terrain followed. The stalk must have lasted for about an hour, but there was a problem; The stalker was uncertain whether or not the buck was old enough to be taken. He studied it far and wide, and by using his buttolo call he was able to call it in to a short distance of approximately 50 meters. The animal was a fabulous six-pointer, but lacking a distinctive rosencrantz, therefore it was not selected for shooting. Of course, my heart sank! We had spent so much time stalking this buck, and the time remaining before darkness approached was limited. Right there and then, I knew by intuition that the stalk in reality was over, that we would have no success this evening. And it turned out that I was right. For the remaining hours of light, we drove around the area, using our binoculars to try to spot a full-grown buck. There were roe deer everywhere; fawns, does, spike bucks, four-pointers and six-pointers, but not a six-point roe buck with a distinctive rosencrantz. As a Norwegian hunter, I am thrilled when shooting a four-pointer, or any roe deer for that matter. I have to admit that I found it quite hard and difficult to cope with the rule, that only six-pointers with a rosencrantz could be taken. On the other hand, the deer management of Royal Deeside has undoubtedly produced good fruits: All roe deer bucks are allowed to grow up, they get a long life and each buck reaches its full capacity and potential before he is taken. The carefully planned deer management in Royal Deeside is probably responsible for the large and healthy population of roe deer in the area.

Enjoying superb luxury accommodation at Learney House

Spending two fabulous days at beautiful Learney House is an experience by itself. Because it was low-season, my wife and I were the only two guests at the house. We had most of the second floor in the building completely to ourselves. We had access to a kitchen and cooked our own meals, we relaxed in the salon between activities, and we slept in an old-fashioned beautiful bed with drapers! We were put in the nicest room on the second floor; the Glenfiddich room, named after one of the nearby estates, which Scotsport co-operates with. The nice and well-kept gardens of Learney House were truly a source of pleasure, relaxation and enjoyment for us. Not at least for my wife who loves photographing nature and gardens. In fact, this was my forth hunting trip to Scotland; In 2007 I shot with Shieldhill Castle, and bagged about 20 small game. In 2008 I shot with Craigaddam Estate in the Castle Douglas area, and bagged roughly 70 small game, mostly partridges. In 2010, I shot with Thrumster Estate in Caithness, Northern Highlands, and bagged a total of 18 small game, including two species of partridge as well as two red grouse. Of course, it felt a bit awkward to leave Scotland this time without having fired a single shot at game. Nevertheless, I regard the 2017 trip to Scotland to be an awesome trip! My wife had the opportunity of photographing exotic nature, both in beautiful Royal Deeside, and when we visited Dunnottar Castle by the sea and Stonehaven village on Saturday, before our return to Norway. Guaranteed, we both want to visit Scotland again; The beautiful country which is truly an Eldorado, both for shooters & stalkers and photographers.