Walkers raise alarm after hearing shots in Golspie area
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Sutherland Estates has given assurances that no game bird shoots are taking place in any areas around Golspie where they were not held in pre-Covid years.
The move follows concern expressed by walkers that shooting is taking place in close vicinity to popular walking areas and that shooters were seen on the village outskirts with "unbroken" guns.
The issue was raised at a virtual meeting of Golspie Community Council last night.
Chairman Ian Sutherland said: "There has been a lot of social media traffic about folk out dog walking at Balblair and the Big Burn tracks and hearing gunshots close to them.
"It is local gamekeepers who are taking people out and they are shooting birds with shotguns but it has certainly put the wind up a few folk - there has not been any notice about shooting taking place."
Mr Sutherland said he had spoken to Sutherland Estates representative Charlotte Gilfillan, of land managers Bell Ingram, and local gamekeepers.
"The estate view is that shooting is not taking place in any locations where it has not been done previously," he said. "It is just that with Covid, this has not happened for the last two years so it has dropped out of the public consciousness."
He added that the estate now intended to put signs up in area where shooting was taking place.
"It is obviously a sensitive subject and one people feel strongly about and public safety has to be paramount," he said. "They are going to look at maps and work out the places where it would be sensible to put signs up.
"Charlotte assures me the shoots have all been risk assessed and it is a short season - probably just eight weeks of the year. The shoots provide employment and revenue.
"The risks are fairly negligible but it can be quite alarming (to hear shots). It is not the keepers that are the risk, it is the guests they are taking out shooting."
Community councillor Iain Miller said he had been told by a local resident that shooters had been spotted walking on the path between the end of Duke Street and Dunrobin Castle with unbroken guns.
"That is a little bit alarming," he told the meeting.
