The weekend of Sept 3rd, I had the opportunity to attend a partridge shoot at Ralia Estate. This estate is located outside of Newtonmore and is roughly 22,000 acres in size. Ralia Estate is located along the beautiful River Spey in the Cairngorm National Park.
I really enjoy the opportunity to participate in these shooting opportunities in Scotland. It's a wonderful way to see some really beautiful country and enjoy time in the outdoors which is something we all miss since moving from Texas. It's also a great way to network and meet other colleagues in the Oil and Gas industry here in Aberdeen. I have a few more shoots scheduled over the next few months and look forward to them.
I was invited by Andreas Nagel, who I met through some mutual acquaintances. We arrived to the lodge on a Friday afternoon late. We immediately put on our hunting clothes and headed off for an evening duck shoot. I was situated on a beautiful pond up in the highlands at dusk. The duck shoot was a lot of fun and I ended up with 8 birds in a short time while watching the sun disappear. This was also my first hunt with a new 12 bore shotgun I purchased here in Aberdeen. Its a Browning 5.25 Heritage Hunter and I was pleased with how the gun handled.
We returned to the lodge that evening for dinner, drinks, and some good comraderie. There was an impressive list of oil and gas executives and other successful businessman. One of which was a nice gentlemen by the name of Tom Griffin who previously owned the Minnie Estate just north of Aberdeen. This is the estate Donald Trump purchased to build his world class links golf course and hotel which is currently under construction and estimated to be a 750 million pound investment. It quickly became late and we were off to bed in order to rest up for Saturday's partridge shoot which was estimated to be a 350 bird day.
Saturday morning came quickly and we had a nice Scottish breakfast before heading out to the country for some driven partridge. The birds didn't disappoint and we had no problem achieving our target of 350 birds. It took our group five drives to reach our target bird count. We had great weather for most of the hunt, with sunshine and relatively warm weather (approximately 17 degrees Celsius) for most of the hunt. After the hunt, we gathered back at the lodge to wish everyone safe travels home. Most of the participants were headed back to Aberdeen, approximately a 2.5 hour drive. Others were carrying on to Skibo Castle to grouse hunt the following day.
No comments:
Post a Comment