Grouse Shooting Season

Only if you bring your own shotgun. A visitor from outside Great Britain needs a UK visitor's shotgun permit, and the application must be made by a sponsor resident in Great Britain. Hendry, Ramsay & Waters acts as your sponsor and submits the application to Police Scotland on your behalf. Police Scotland says a typical application takes up to six weeks to process, so we ask for your details at least six weeks before you travel. The Police Scotland fee is £48 per visitor, or £240 for a group application. You will need a copy of your home firearms licence (European visitors: your European Firearms Pass) or, where you hold neither, a letter of good character from your police or government. Carry the permit with you and declare your guns and permit to UK Border Force when you arrive.

If you would rather not travel with your own guns, we arrange gun hire and cartridges for you and you shoot under the UK's borrowing exemption, so no permit is needed. Most of our overseas guests choose this.

Sources: Police Scotland — visitor permits and BASC — visiting the UK to shoot.

A driven day on one of the grouse moors we represent, with the keeper, beaters, flankers and pickers-up, and a loader where you want one; or a walked-up day over pointers or spaniels for a party of two to six guns. For multi-day packages we arrange transport, hotel accommodation, gun hire, cartridges and permits, so you only have to arrive. Tell us the dates, the number of guns and, for a driven day, the bag you have in mind.

Driven grouse is priced per brace on the bag agreed for the day, and is the most expensive driven bird in Britain because the birds are wild and the moors are managed all year for one short season. Walked-up grouse is priced per gun per day and costs far less. Both vary by moor and by the date in the season, so we quote each day individually. Send us your dates, party size and the bag you have in mind and we will quote the day in full, with no obligation.

12 August to 10 December. Driven days are concentrated in August, September and October; walked-up days over dogs run through the whole season and are at their best in August and September when the heather is in flower.

Fly into Edinburgh, Glasgow or Inverness, whichever is nearest the moor. If you are bringing your own shotguns we sponsor your UK visitor's permit (allow six weeks); if not, hire guns and cartridges are waiting for you. We arrange the moor, the guide, your accommodation and the permits, and we advise on which airlines currently carry firearms. Many of our American guests combine grouse with a red stag in the rut or with driven partridge in the same trip. Read our guide for American hunters.

Hendry, Ramsay & Waters (Scothunt) is a Scottish sporting agency with driven and walked-up grouse on estates in Scotland and the north of England. We arrange single days and multi-day packages for sporting clients from the UK, Europe and the United States, and we handle the moor booking, the permits, the accommodation and the transport. Fill in the enquiry form or contact us.

A driven day needs a full line of eight or nine guns to make the drives work, so single guns and small parties are placed on shared days or sold days. Walked-up days over pointers or spaniels suit two to six guns. Tell us the size of your party and we will tell you which is the better fit and which moors have dates.

Tell us your dates, party size and what you want to hunt and we send a written programme and quotation. A 50% deposit confirms the booking and the balance is invoiced before you travel; if you book less than eight weeks before the start, the full amount is payable in place of the deposit. Overseas clients are invoiced in pounds sterling, the programme states whether VAT is included, and we recommend you take out your own cancellation insurance. The full conditions of booking are on the site.