The Buchan-eers

An unseasonably hot, still September day on Harris wasn’t ideal for a Macnab attempt. Could good fieldcraft overcome the conditions?

- JANET MENZIES

During a summer that included Ferrari-spotting at Mallorca’s Puerto Portals marina, the true luxury was travelling for two days in order to spend 13 hours invaded, and finally overrun, by midges on the Isle of Harris in an attempt to gain a Macnab.

The quest for a Macnab is far more of an ego trip than looking for a parking space for one’s supercar. For the whole day, or even week, from pre-dawn to dusk, the most knowledgeable and experienced gillies, stalkers and keepers give their entire concentration and provide access to a large portion of the Highlands and Islands to facilitate your quest to catch a salmon, shoot a brace of grouse and take a beast. It is a privilege well worth battling any number of motorways, ferries and single-track roads in the fog for. So when The Field offered me the coveted opportunity to attempt a Macnab on the Amhuinnsuidhe estate on Harris, I instantly threw my guns, rifle, waders (not necessary as it turned out), binoculars, whisper-coat and all my other kit into the vehicle and, some time later, arrived at Amhuinnsuidhe Castle.

John Buchan’s original Macnabbers in the novel John Macnab are a barrister, a cabinet minister and a banker – all three in have-it-all occupations and looking to be taken outside their predictable comfort zones. So the challenge they gave themselves was to poach stags and salmon from three estates, a feat that laid a great emphasis on fieldcraft as it had to be achieved without the back-up resources of the estate. The Macnab will be 100 years old in 2025 and is still the most immersive of all sporting experiences, as you are immersed in peat bog, river or loch at the same time as receiving an in-depth course in fieldcraft from its greatest exponents – the estate staff.