Hi all,
even after reading through many posts here on WH, as well as looking at the Heading For The Scottish Hills web site, I still feel uncertain about how to behave correctly during deer stalking season. My partner and I have taken days off in the middle of September to do some wild camping in Lochaber. We'll be relying entirely on public transport, thus spontaneous moving to other areas does not seem feasible.
I'll try to summarise what I believe to have understood so far (but please do correct me if I am wrong!):
- as a walker it's my responsibility to find out about deer stalking activity in the areas I want to walk and also to obey signs/deer stalkers' information
- I should avoid disturbing stalking activity by sticking to footpaths/ridges
- stalking usually doesn't take place on NT land, John Muir Trust Land, Forestry Commission Land
What I feel I am not getting is the footpath/ridge thing: Am I allowed to walk through a stalked estate if I stick to a footpath? What qualifies as a footpath - does it include any track/path shown in an OS 1:25000 map?
Obviously, for camping, we will leave the path. Do we therefore need to end the day somewhere that's not being stalked? What if that proves impossible (due to lacking mobile reception/dead phones so that we couldn't find out about stalking in advance/bad weather and really slow walking)? Is it OK to wild camp in a stalked estate if we stick to the very top of a hill (might be a bad idea in bad weather, though)?
I am also having a hard time finding the areas in question on the list of estates on the Heading For The Hills site because it just lists hills (which are kind of irrelevant when taking a low-level route). Do I still have to check for every single mountain next to our path whether it's stalked? In that time, I will be too old to ever go walking again
And, lastly, would you discuss wild camping plans with a stalker/estate manager? Somehow I fear this will more likely lead to us being guided away from any land in question...(I mean, does anyone really want wild campers on the land they manage?)
I am very sorry for all these naive questions! It's the first time we'll be walking and sleeping away from well-troden long-distance trails...(and why did we have to choose stalking season for this?!
)