Sporting on Dalmunzie Estate

Simulated Game

Simulated game shooting at Dalmunzie offers a chance to enjoy the challenge and tradition of driven shooting year-round, with drives designed to recreate the experience of a traditional game day.

Simulated game is offered for teams of six or more, with days featuring a variety of drives based on grouse, pheasant, and partridge. The course can be adapted to suit the conditions and the party's experience, with a typical day consisting of four drives, morning refreshments, elevenses in the field, and a meal at Dalmunzie Castle Hotel.

The days suit both those new to game shooting and more experienced shooters, with experienced minders available where required. We can also arrange gun hire, safety equipment, and cartridges.

Our range of holiday cottages and hotel rooms provides excellent on-site accommodation for shooting parties.

Pheasants

Pheasant shooting at Dalmunzie forms part of our wider range of traditional game shooting, with birds driven across the estate's varied Highland landscape.

The pheasant season runs from 1 October to 1 February, with the main shooting period typically falling in autumn and winter. Changing conditions throughout the season create different challenges, with the birds becoming increasingly strong and wary as the season progresses.

Pheasant drives can also form part of our simulated game days, allowing parties to experience the style and tradition of a driven pheasant shoot outside the traditional season.

Red Deer

The stag season starts on the 1st of July with stalking on Dalmunzie typically starting in early September and running until the end of the season on the 20th of October. Mid-October is the most exciting time to stalk as the stags are in the midst of the rut, when their roars can be heard throughout the day and night, tending to peak three hours after dawn and three hours before dusk. During this time of year, the stag experiences many physiological changes, including a doubling in thickness of the neck and even a change in the shape of the tongue.

The hind season starts on the 21st of October and runs until the 15th of February, with the majority of hinds shot early in the season.

Our range of holiday cottages and hotel rooms provide excellent on site accommodation for stalking parties.

Grouse

The grouse season begins on the 12th of August (the Glorious Twelfth) and runs until the 10th of December, although most of our shooting takes place in the opening month.

Shooting on Dalmunzie is predominantly walked up across 6 beats, with occasional driven days also available. Parties typically comprise 4 to 8 guns, though this varies depending on grouse numbers.

PTARMIGAN

These plump birds can be found on the highest slopes of Dalmunzie and are only shot when numbers are sufficient. Not dissimilar to the Mountain Hare's pelage, the plumage of the ptarmigan changes in colour over the seasons. Summer will see the bird dressed in a neutral palette of grey, brown and black, then through the process of moulting, the ptarmigan becomes almost entirely white, just in time for blending in with winter's snowy backdrop.