Making A Heavenly Point In The Hebrides

As the old year draws to a close, Adrian Dangar heads to Hamanavay on the Isle of Lewis, where he delights in the ancient sporting art of shooting elusive and wily woodcock over pointers.

- Adrian Dangar

The Outer hebrides in early December present a very different landscape to the shimmering green hills, turquoise seas and white-powder beaches of high summer—it’s as if the heavy autumn rains have washed all traces of greenery from the land and bleached the rock-strewn hills into a dull and inhospitable yellow.

Deer on the vast hamanavay estate on the Isle of Lewis’s west coast nudge ever lower during long winter nights in search of vanishing grass and the last runs of silvery salmon and sea trout ended months ago. however, as one celebrated migrant departs, so another appears to enchant and frustrate the sportsman in equal measure.

‘We expect a big fall of woodcock around the time of the first full moon in November,’ explains the estate’s stalker, Simon Hunt. ‘And, after that, they just keep coming, especially if the mainland is frozen and it’s mild here.’ I’ve joined a small group of friends to take part in one of the most challenging and exciting of all field sports, for the dedicated pursuit of woodcock in wild and mountainous country is a demanding pastime unfamiliar to all but the keenest shots.

Team leader Patrick Steuart Fothringham is a regular visitor to this desolate landscape in which the Perthshire pheasants he has forsaken would perish within weeks. ‘Driven shooting is predictable and easily accessible,’ he asserts. ‘However, up here, one has to work hard for every bird and you never know whether to expect feast or famine.’