Grouse over pointers and setters
During the journey between the Black Bull in Lauder and Rawburn Moor, 70-year-old Wilson Young regales me with shooting anecdotes in his soft, Border lilt and with an enthusiasm undiminished by nearly 40 years at the sharp end of a sport that is synonymous with his name in the wild and lovely Borders region. We are on our way to shoot grouse on moorland belonging to the Duke of Roxburghe but Young also rents and administers game shooting across a staggering 60,000 Border acres, which provides employment for 12 full-time gamekeepers and so much work for ancillary staff that during the shooting season he is the biggest employer in the area. His business, Eskdale Shooting Services, is now in the safe hands of Wilson Young junior. He started it in 1981 with the lease of Dalkeith Palace estate after American visitors to Young’s Lauder hotel asked him to arrange some driven pheasant shooting in the area.
“Most of the birds flushed at maximum range
