When you first think about Scotland golf, distilleries and castles are some of the first thoughts everyone has! Now the real hidden gem here in Scotland is the hunting and fishing, it is without a doubt some of the finest you’ll find in the world! Scotland is already famed for some of the most beautiful scenery and what better way to explore it than wading the rivers in pursuit of salmon or hunting the whisky rich barley fields for waterfowl! Let us show you how much of a Sportsman’s paradise Scotland really is…..
We are truly blessed in Scotland to have such incredible hunting and fishing opportunities and we look forward to sharing those with you! Our Scotland section will provide you with a further insight to what we have available in Aberdeenshire as we can offer these adventures as stand alone trips or combo packages!
Aberdeenshire is one of the top places within the world to hunt pinkfooted geese, every winter the UK has the pleasure of playing host to some 500,000 of these visitors from Iceland and Greenland. The vast majority head for Aberdeenshire and disperse across major roosts such as Loch Skene, Loch of Strathbeg and Montrose Basin and the sights can be absolutely incredible watching them head out to their feeding grounds and return to roost each night!
Pinkfeet will begin arriving with us around the 3rd week of September and we like to allow them the chance to build their numbers and settle in before any hunting takes place for the season. We tend to begin hunting 2nd week of October and will run hunts to the end of January and this produces some first class waterfowling opportunities for our travelling hunters!
Species we will be targeting are both Pinkfeet and Greylag geese as well as duck species such as Mallards, Eurasian Wigeon and teal, we specialise in running trips to help our hunters tick off bucket list species as well as chasing those big spin moments!
We run field hunts for geese every morning and will set up on pre scouted feeds for each hunt, our spreads consist of Divebomb socks and silos and we will run anything from 60-1200 decoys depending on the situation each day. Sometimes less is more and we will adjust to suit the birds and conditions daily. With a selection of hide options from layout blinds, backboards and A frames we have something to suit every hunting situation and group requirements. We will always aim to set up with what will produce the best hunting opportunities but will do our best to accommodate the groups wishes for comfort!
Evening hunts can be absolute blast for our visiting hunters as its not something that’s allowed across the pond and hunting ducks and geese by moon light can be an incredible experience! Our hunts take place across splashes (sheet water roosts) natural and man made ponds and when conditions allow rivers! Hunts usually line up focusing on either ducks, geese or a combo hunt for both and this will usually depend on the groups wishes for species and of course the Scottish Weather!
Along with incredible waterfowling Aberdeenshire is also home to some outstanding pigeon hunting, we have wood pigeon in abundance and they live here all year round but we will see an increase in numbers during certain times of the year with migration from Europe. They might not be quite Argentina numbers but they can produce some absolutely incredible hunting opportunities for seasoned wing shooters, especially with all hunting place over decoy spreads not pass shooting!
Scotland plays host to a lot of arable farms and Oil seed rape (Canola) wheat and barley are wood pigeon favourites, our hunts will take place over these cut fields during the month of August as we believe this is the best time to hunt them and combine trips with the likes of Roe buck or Salmon fishing. Interestingly enough wood pigeon can only be hunted for crop protection reasons and these extend as far as being able to hunt them over cut crops for any future damage they may cause during the winter and spring months.
Hunts will take place from blinds that are set up on pre scouted fields and we will set the spreads and motion every day ahead of each hunt to ensure weather and bird patterns have been taken into account. Usually hunting will be from around 10am-5.30pm each day and its very possible for shoots of double digits up to triple digits depending on the birds playing ball and of course the shooting!
Like any hunting the birds are totally wild and when its on the hunts can be absolutely on fire where its possible to shoot a couple cases per hunter! Of course there will be days where it could only be a couple boxes but that’s hunting! We recommend a 5 day package for the full experience but can tailor this to suit your needs based around other hunts or activities.
Scotland has always been associated with deer especially the Red Stag, its been a very iconic animal and has roamed these hills for many centuries. With such a wide variety of terrain in this area we are super lucky to have both Roe Buck hunting and Red Stag hunting available within the same area. All hunting takes place over private farm or estate ground as we don’t have any public hunting this side of the pond. The terrain varies on the species you will be hunting but the roe deer tend to be on the lower ground in arable areas while the red deer are most likely found on the higher up heathery hill ground. Both of which offer some incredible hunting opportunities for those wishing to deer hunt over here in Scotland as it will suit all kinds of skill levels and hunters deer requirements.
Our Roe Buck hunting takes place across some beautiful parts of Aberdeenshire from the east coast right up into the hills the highlands. Roe buck are one of the most unique deer to hunt as they can be extremely smart and with their small size they are masters of disappearing, they are like the brown ghost of Scotland! Spring time is one of the best times to hunt them and we will run hunts from May through to the beginning of July, during these months we are spot and stalking all our bucks which is extremely fun covering all kinds of terrain. We will often use spotting scopes and digi scopes for watching the deer from a dtance to make best best use of our hunting time. The Roe buck Rut is actually in August and its possible to call them in just like an elk, its like a cross between predator and deer hunting watching the bucks coming hammering into the call. This is one of our favourite ways to hunt them and its also possible to combine these hunts with pigeon hunting or salmon fishing.
Hunting is a little different for these deer as the hunts take place early in the morning and from early evening to last light! This can create some super fun hunting situations and we cant recommend this enough to anyone, don’t let the size of the deer put you off as it can be one of the most rewarding hunts! We manage our areas well to ensure good numbers and genes are prolific on the ground.
Our Red Stag hunting takes place on some of Aberdeenshire’s finest hunting estates, we work with some great partners to ensure we provide a memorable hill stalking experience! The hunting will take place high up in the hills and you will be surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery in the world whilst in pursuit of the king of the hill. All hunting takes place during the day and you will be hunting from around 8am-5pm, once again this is real spot and stalk hunting and a high level of fitness will be required as argo cats and ATV’s may be used to get you to higher points but it will be on foot from there. This can be some of the most phenomenal hunting and stags will be hunted from the end of August to the end of October, most estates operate strict management plans so stag sizes will vary but the experience will be second to none, belly crawling into herds of red deer high in the Scottish hills is something that will be hard to forget!
For red stag please contact directly for all 2025 enquiries.
We are renowned for famous Salmon rivers here in Scotland and Aberdeenshire is lucky to have both the River Dee and River Don, the Dee is on our door step and we have access to some incredible beats via our partners The Scottish Fly Fishing Company. Nicol and his team have a vast wealth of this world famous salmon river and indeed many other Scottish rivers. They are able to offer full tuition to the legendry Spey Casting as well as providing everything you could possibly need for a guided or self guided trip here to Scotland.
Fly Fishing River Dee Aberdeenshire (thescottishflyfishingco.com)
The Scottish Fly Fishing CO | Facebook
The Scottish Fly Fishing Co (@the_scottish_fly_fishing_co) • Instagram photos and videos
Whilst the Don is more commonly known for its huge Brown trout it also is home to Salmon and it is literally a few casts away from our base camp in Aberdeenshire! We are able to offer both guided and self guided trips here via our partners and we would welcome you to reach out to see how best we can tailor everything to suit your time here in Scotland.
FishPal – Scotland – Don – Mains of Tilliefoure
Mains of Tilliefoure (@tilliefourefishing) • Instagram photos and videos
The North sea is home to many different fish species and off the coast of Stonehaven there is quick and easily accessible reef fishing for mackerel, cod, coalfish and pollack aboard our partners boat! Suitable for all ages it’s a perfect add on to some of the other hunting and fishing available and the incredible coastal views make it a perfect trip for exploring more of Scotland’s wonderful scenery.
Stonehaven Boat Trips & Shellfish | Scheduling and Booking Website (muirskie.com)
Stonehaven Shellfish & Boat Trips | Stonehaven | Facebook
Steve Munro (@stonehaven_shellfish_boattrips) • Instagram photos and videos
