Highland Hunt: Part I

Fraser Balgowan Experience: PART I

I'm here at The Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire Scotland, tapping away on my laptop whilst occasionally looking out at the nighttime sky with the hills still visible in the distance sat in our gorgeous room, wrapped in a tartan blanket. Aaah. My husband and I are here, alongside a small group of others, with our friends Ewan and Fiona Fraser to take part in the Fraser Balgowan Experience. The last time we were in this neck of the woods we enjoyed a day of deer stalking in the Highlands and this time is similar except with a powerful twist. Remember Fiona's gorgeous bags? Well... this experience is all about those bags - in the most bespoke way imaginable. Three days in the heart of Scotland; deerstalking with Ewan shooting wild red deer followed by working alongside Fiona to create a Fraser Balgowan bag with the hide of the same deer.

The trip began last night with a spot of whisky tasting at The Gleneagles Hotel. Of course. We are in Scotland. Particularly impressive was the outdoor room in which the tasting took place, heated seats and cigars provided. Rows of whisky bottles lined the back wall, all at varying degrees of fullness, belonging to regular customers saved for their next visit. After that we had a dinner at the hotel restaurant the beauty of which did nothing short of amaze me. Then came breakfast in the morning. All power to the guy who makes it his business to poach the eggs because they are damn fine eggs and I never thought I would describe the taste of haggis as delightful but today, I did. I was a bit disappointed we didn't see any haggis to shoot at the hunt later in the day. 

After my three course breakfast (wholly unnecessary) we drove through beautiful Perthshire to Balgowan, the farming hamlet where Ewan and Fiona live. Whilst there we met the best cow in the world who goes by the name of George. He's quite a fancy young cow with long eyelashes that I swear flutter a tad now and then. He's shy but adorable.

We accompanied the stop off in Balgowan with a cup of tea - what can truly be achieved without a cup of tea? Then set off to the estate where the deerstalking would take place. It's an indescribably beautiful, almost spiritual place with steep mountains and deep glens with fresh rivers running and a colour palette that can only be found in the Highlands of Scotland. Muted purples, rich greens, earthy browns. Right at the place where we stopped for lunch there was a bothy, a stone built place of shelter in the middle of the wilderness. I couldn't help longing to live there, imagining myself waking up in the morning to see the deer on the mountains and drinking from the river. Aaah. Me and the Highlands? It's definitely love. 

Me and deer? Same thing. It's love. My favourite Greek Goddess was always Artemis who hangs around with deer in the forest all day. They are graceful and majestic animals, absolutely thriving and extremely plentiful in Scotland. I learnt today that the antlers from the stag are amazingly healthful things - a rich source of minerals. The deer are known to nibble on the antlers they themselves have shed to help to grow new strong ones. It also translates to humans who have now fashioned 'deer antler tablets' apparently very effective for joint pain. The deer eat a vegetarian diet of greens, mostly grass and they live a life of freedom in their own natural habitat.

This word 'sustainability' gets banded about quite a bit but what does it mean? The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as 'conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources.'

Deer in Scotland have no natural predators. There were once wolves who have been extinct since the 1700s. A few years back British and Norwegian researchers said that wolf reintroduction into the Scottish Highlands would aid the re-establishment of plants and birds currently hampered by the deer population.

Left completely unchecked the deer population would lead to troubles on a variety of levels. Trained deerstalkers know exactly which animals are appropriate to shoot and when, such as the older or weaker ones. There is an exact hunting season between July and October with no hunting during the season when the females are pregnant. At the moment the violent poaching of deer due to the high value placed on venison is reduced by the practice of properly executed deerstalking. This time honored way of killing deer truly is sustainable.

 

Our ancestors, way way way back, killed animals by their own weapons and used their skins to make clothes and the flesh for food. Over the millennia we have floated further and further away from this and become blinder and blinder to the multitude of other processes that have now come in to replace that original process. The idea of wearing the skin of or eating the meat of an animal you shot yourself personally has, for many, become shocking.

In many ways the Fraser Balgowan Experience is the ultimate in consumer honesty. It's not only a look at the process, it's becoming a genuine part of it and finding out exactly what goes into that gorgeous bag. It's a gigantic leap further than buying free range meat and it's all done in one of the most beautiful, historic surroundings on Earth.

PART II
PART III

To find out more continuing news about the story of Fraser Balgowan go to the website here: Fraser Balgowan