Young, female and vegetarian – the face of Scottish gamekeeping is changing

Instead, she recalls the moment as being surprisingly calm, confirming she could, indeed, pursue a role as one of Scotland’s few women gamekeepers.

“I was amazed at how clinical the whole thing was,” she says. “I was actually a bit confused, because I didn’t feel any great emotive rush.

“There have been clients that I’ve taken out stalking who we have to tell to start breathing again, they get so stressed with all these emotions about what has just happened.”

One of a handful of women gamekeepers – and possibly the only vegetarian turned gamekeeper in the land - the NatureScot Deer Management Officer was recently named INEOS Grenadier Countryside Champion Award 2022 in recognition of her championing of sustainable deer and land management and efforts to encourage more women and young people into the role.

Regarded as a male stronghold of tweeds, toffs and trophies, the modern face of gamekeeping – led by Megan, 29 - appears to be changing.

According to the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, there are now around 15 women in Scotland qualified as gamekeepers, mostly working in deer management.

That “small uptick…from a very low base” comes amid reports of rising numbers of applications for gamekeeping and wildlife management courses from people with a diverse range of backgrounds not traditionally linked to the sector.

At North Highland College UHI in Thurso, which runs an NC, HND and modern apprenticeship in gamekeeping, interest is said to have soared over the past two years, with a rise in applications from students from out with Caithness and with less experience of the sector.

At SRUC’s Elmwood campus in Fife, Gamekeeping and Wildlife Management lecturer Jim Goodlad has also seen a surge in applicants for wildlife management and gamekeeping courses who have no links with the sector - at odds with a role which often runs in families.

“We are seeing late returners, people looking for a change of direction and see a future in working in the countryside,” he says.

“Covid might have something to do with it, because people have been accessing the countryside and seeing it is a grand place to work.

“The biggest issue is the public perception – not everyone realises if you are killing animals, it is for conservation and welfare. But the people applying for our courses are aware that we need to manage the countryside in an effective way.”

Another sign of change came in this year’s Lantra Scotland Awards for Land-based and Aquaculture Skills – the ‘Oscars’ of the gamekeeping sector.

They were dominated by Rory Donaldson, an 18-year-old former George Watson’s College pupil from Edinburgh and NC Gamekeeping graduate of SRUC, whose first taste came when he was ten and visiting a Borders game fair.

He is now part of the estate team at Drummond Estate, Glenartney in Perthshire, which uses traditional hill ponies to extract deer from the hill to the larder.

The apparent upswing in interest from people with no strong gamekeeping links comes as major Scottish conservation charity, the John Muir Trust, leads calls to make hunting and deer management more accessible.

The charity - which faced criticism in 2016 over deer culls which saw dozens of stag carcases left to rot near public footpaths in Knoydart – says Scotland’s current system of deer management, rooted in 19th century model of wealthy clients led by professional stalkers on private land, is not effective at keeping deer numbers down.

It wants pilot community projects where local people trained in deer management and venison production can work together to keep numbers down.

It points to countries like Norway where ten per cent of the population are registered hunters, and suggests more areas could follow the example of community-owned North Harris Trust which has opened up stalking for recreation and land management to the wider community through the Harris Stalking Club.

The Trust is now preparing to launch a women’s stalking group at Quinag, and has invested in a community deer larder in Glencanisp Estate in Assynt, where culled deer can be home butchered by accredited members of the local community.

While its ‘Hill to Grill’ programme offers young people the chance to see culled deer butchered and cooked.

The Trust says making deer stalking more accessible would tackle high deer numbers, help woodlands and grasslands to regenerate and provide local, affordable food.

The question then, is whether Scots have the stomach for it?

An “anti-hunting vegetarian”, Megan switched to consuming meat after her parents bought a small herd of Manx Loaghtan sheep for their Orkney croft, which they slaughtered for their own consumption. It led her to question the origins of ‘fake meat’ meals, and whether eating sustainable, local meat was a better option.

After volunteering with the RSPB and the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust she enrolled on the NC Gamekeeping and HNC in Wildlife Management at North Highland College UHI.

But before she could consider gamekeeping as a career, she had to make her first kill.

“People often see the trophy hunting side of deerstalking, but there is much more going on behind the scenes.

“I was surprised by the depth of what gamekeepers do, the land management, the need to reduce numbers of deer, the practical skills and knowledge in producing the product,” she says.

“I thought ‘if I’m going to do this, I need to know that I can press the button when I have to’.

“At the end of the day, you are producing food, you have to make sure the shot is handled well and transported properly.”

Currently most Scottish venison is exported, while the majority of venison on supermarket shelves comes from New Zealand.

“We need to value this product,” she adds. “There are around 150,000 deer shot in Scotland every year and there’s talk about increasing that, but right now we’ve not got a market for it.

“We can’t expect people to leave a good quality product lying on the hill, it’s important that we value this.”

She warns anyone considering a career in gamekeeping that it comes with long hours and high physical demands, while some face abuse on social media from anti-hunt campaigners.

That reached a frenzy in 2018, when US TV host Larysa Switlyk was photographed on Islay alongside goats, a ram and stags shot during a series of outings.

Women face particular challenges: “Most people think it’s brilliant that a woman is doing this job, but I’ve had some who have tried to tell me how to do my job,” she adds.

NatureScot’s Licensing Manager Liz McLachlan said: “Historically, the gender balance of the wildlife management sector was tipped towards males, but increasingly that is changing with female deer stalkers and wildlife managers much more commonly found these days.

“In our work with the Rural Colleges, it is encouraging to see more female candidates entering and completing college courses for land and wildlife management and then pursuing a wide variety of successful careers across the sector.

“At NatureScot, 60% of our Wildlife Management activity team is currently female, and it’s great to see our Deer Management Officer Megan being recognised for her excellent work with this national award.”

Alex Hogg, chairman of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association said: “The key thing for us as professionals who have managed more deer than any other body, is there still needs to be that critical emphasis on training and humane management.

“Deer are one of the Scottish people's most loved animals and the public, rightly, want them treated with respect.

“There is much more to deer management than just pulling a trigger, but Scotland is not making the best of what is a national resource and we would like to see that changed