Egton estate North Yorkshire

An early-season walked-up day brings a party of old friends to the moor, where elegant dogwork and plentiful grouse make for unforgettable sport

- SIR JOHNNY SCOTT 

For those of us who love any form of dogwork and prefer the more traditional, old-fashioned forms of fieldsports, shooting grouse over setters or pointers is almost impossible to beat

EGTON estate sits on the corner of north-east the North York Moors E National Park, in an area of outstanding natural beauty, one hour from York and six miles from the picturesque fishing town of Whitby. Owned by the Foster family since 1869, it is a perfect sporting estate with nearly 5,000 acres of heather moorland, 500 acres of pasture and 400 of commercial and amenity woodland. Added to this is three miles of double-bank fishing on the Yorkshire Esk, which bisects the estate and is one of the country's most prolific salmon and seatrout migratory spate rivers.

The centrepiece of the estate is the magnificent sandstone Egton Manor, where a party of guns and dog handlers was staying, for the second year running, for two days of walked-up grouse as guests of Olly and Laura Foster. These were all old friends from the field-trial and grousecounting circuit who had shot together many times before.

Shortly after 9am on day one, Andrew Orr, the headkeeper who has worked on Egton for 18 years, and Morgan Campbell, his beatkeeper, met the team at the front door of Egton Manor. Dogs were loaded and we drove in convoy up to Egton High Moor and down a track through the heather to the lunch hut at Black Pits, an old stonebuilt shepherd's cottage out on the moor. Five guns were shooting: Andy Wagstaff, Sean and Nick Connor, Rob Gould (who was also working his English setters Belle and Lilly) and Steve Kimberley with his German longhaired pointer, Cracker, and black labrador, Verity. Kathy Connor had her German longhaired pointer, Lutz, and black labrador, Lettice, out, while Sue Wagstaff was working Gus, her wirehaired Korthals Griffon.