Protecting Exmoor's Very Special Emblem

Will Martin accompanies the Devon and Somerset Staghounds on their opening meet amid glorious scenery and excellent company

Grey swirling skies highlighted the yellows, browns and golds of the moor, with only the deep purple of the heather to punctuate the sparse beauty. Adding to these rich colours, six riders in their red coats led more than 150 mounted followers in tweed jackets and fawn breeches behind two tan and-white hounds.

I was on Exmoor, as a guest of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds (DSSH), to learn about the management of the red deer herd that lives on the moor.

As Malcolm McGowan, author of Stag Hunting on Exmoor with the Devon and Somerset Staghounds (Nimrod Press) wrote, Exmoor National Park “is the principal home of the English red deer”. Though called “red”, as McGowan beautifully puts it the Exmoor stag is “more a burnished gold”. They are the emblem of the park and each year draw in thousands of tourists to see the wild herds roam in one of the last great wildernesses in England.

The red deer of Exmoor have been managed by man since the 13th century when Exmoor was declared a royal forest. The first noted pack of staghounds was recorded by Collyns in 1598 to be under the mastership of Sir Hugh Pollard of Kings Nympton.

Two hounds

 The pack has certainly changed, never more so than with the passing of the Hunting Act 2004; most notably since it came into force in February 2005, only two hounds are used to pursue deer for the purposes of research and observation, flushing and shooting, or capturing injured or sick animals. Despite the restrictions of the act, the DSSH has been able to legally continue its valuable work in observing, managing and maintaining the emblem of Exmoor.

When the pack was founded in 1855, there were thought to be 75 deer. But in the 162 years since then, the deer population has grown and is now estimated at more than 3,000.