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The Heading for the Scottish Hills service, part of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code website, helps people find out where deer stalking is taking place before they head out. Alongside Walkhighlands and estate websites, the service advises where and when stalking happens on popular hills, provides contact details for land managers and includes routes that are ‘always okay’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Stag stalking activity is at its peak during the first three weeks of October. After this, from 21 October until 15 February, the hind cull begins. The cull of hinds helps reduce the impact of Scotland’s excessive deer populations\u2013 including overgrazing, browsing and trampling \u2013 and supports the recovery of upland habitats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Simple steps \u2013 such as planning a route that avoids areas where stalking is taking place, staying flexible on the day and following any reasonable requests from gamekeepers and other land managers \u2013 can make a real difference. It is also worth noting that fewer routes are affected by stalking on Saturdays, and stalking does not usually take place on Sundays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most estates are happy to provide information on exactly where and when stalking takes place to help shooting and walking to co-exist during the busy season. However – one estate – North Chesthill in Glen Lyon – has put up signs in previous years saying “No walking” for the whole of September and October, and it still discourages all access on its four Munros from September to November according to its own website. Walkers’ charity Ramblers Scotland have set up a petition – already signed by 14,000 people – against this blanket closure. This has sparked official warnings to the estate. NatureScot – who run ‘Heading for the Scottish Hills’ – has said the estate “doesn\u2019t always appear to be compliant with Scotland\u2019s access rights\u201d and Perth and Kinross Council has warned \u201cany blanket closure of access rights would be unlawful\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perth & Kinross Council are asking any walkers who do head to North Chesthill this autumn, to report any unreasonable signage, car park closure, online advice or physical barriers to outdooraccess@pkc.gov.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can sign the Ramblers Petition here: https:\/\/www.ramblers.org.uk\/glenlyon<\/a> Early September until 20th October is the busiest time of year for red deer stag shooting (stalking) across many of Scotland’s hills and mountains. NatureScot is encouraging hill-goers to check stalking information using their Heading for the Scottish Hills service to plan their visits; this information is also shown on Walkhighlands route descriptions during this key period. The Heading for the Scottish Hills service, part of the Scottish Outdoor Access Code website, helps people find out where deer stalking is taking place before they head out. Alongside Walkhighlands and estate websites, the service advises where and when stalking happens on…<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29612,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-access-issues","category-magazine","category-walking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29611"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29621,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29611\/revisions\/29621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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