I was pleased to be quoted in an article in the National on Saturday (see here) about how the Scottish Parliament still drafts legislation designed to exclude the Royal Family and Crown Estate. Twenty 20 years ago outdoor recreational interests successfully fought to close a loophole which would have meant access rights did not apply to the Balmoral estate. The King still appears to have more influence over how the state operates than MSPs.
Two further stories emerged last week which raise questions about how King Charles may exert his influence in other, darker, ways. Both featured Peter Fraser,currently a Director of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, who the then Prince Charles described in 2013 as one of his “countryside heroes”:
Peter Fraser on red deer on the BBC
On 1st May Farming Today (see here) had a feature (11 mins) on how the number of red deer in the Scottish Highlands have doubled in the last 50 years, which it billed as “good news for wildlife-watchers” but also “damaging woodlands and other fragile habitats”.
The programme started in Glen Coe, which is owned and managed by the National Trust for Scotland, and where counts last year found a staggering 17 deer per square kilometre. It was never explained why NTS, which have reduced deer to 2 per square km on the conservation part of Mar Lodge Estate, have taken so long to act in Glen Coe. The explanation probably lies with neighbouring landowners and landowners, a number of whom also featured on the programme claiming that any culls would threaten jobs, accommodation and rural communities. Those sporting estate interests made a number of ridiculous arguments, including that children from gamekeepers’ families had filled the local school (Glencoe Primary is down in Ballachulish). None addressed the basic flaw in this argument, which is that the doubling of deer numbers has NOT resulted in any more stalking jobs.
The programme then moved over to Deeside, where gamekeepers had claimed over ten years ago that NTS’s plans to reduce deer numbers at Mar Lodge would threaten jobs. Unfortunately the interesting interview with the manager, David Frew, about deer numbers on the estate and NTS’ relationship with their neighbours, did not state how many staff are now employed compared to when it was run for sporting purposes.
Peter Fraser, who was described as deputy-chairman of the Scottish Gamekeepers Association and resident at Crathie (by Balmoral) was then interviewed (at 9 mins 25). Mr Fraser made two extraordinary claims about deer numbers in the area.
The first was that “there has been a big reduction in deer numbers, there is no question about that” and that “you can see this wherever you go”. To provide evidence for this assertion he claimed that previously when driving up Glen Shee just above Braemar you could see “perhaps 500-600 stags” and now there are “only a 100 or so”. While spotting deer and counting them is a complicated matter, partly because of how they move around, data obtained from NatureScot about on the Caenlochan Section 7 (deer control) Agreement shows Mr Fraser’s claims are complete nonsense:
That high density (the Cairngorms National Park Authority has set a target of 6 – 8 deer per square kilometre) was despite the large numbers of sheep in Glen Shee (which Mr Fraser failed to mention and which compete with deer for food). This map from the Strathcaulidh report on the functioning of the Section 7 Agreement (see here) illustrates the very high number of grazing animals on Invercauld:
Mr Fraser’s claim on the programme that the number of stags being culled at Invercauld was down from 100 to 50 a year, with the implication that this was due to a reduction in deer numbers, is also complete nonsense:
In 2019-20 129 stags were culled within the two parts of the Invercauld estate that lie within the area covered by the Caenlochan Section 7 Agreement. These figures do not include the other three parts of the Invercauld Estate, including the land to the west of Glen Shee. There are similar figures for other years, for example in 2018-19 Invercauld culled 74 stags in Glen Callater and 60 on the eastern side of Glen Shee.
The truth is that rather than there being a reduction in the number of stags being culled, not nearly enough are being shot. Mr Fraser should know this, living as he does in the shadow of Balmoral, where the fragment of the Caledonian pine forest at Ballochbuie has had to be fenced by the Royal Family to protect it against the depredations of red deer. But maybe he only ever looks at muirburnt Abergeldie (see below)?
Mr Fraser and the Scottish Gamekeepers Association’s attacks on Chris Packham
On 4th May Raptor Persecution UK published the witness statement (see here) that Chris Packham has submitted to the courts as part of a defamation case against three individuals. For any reader who is not aware, Mr Packham has been subject to all sorts of accusations from sporting interests and some vicious harassment, including dead animals being left at his home and an arson attack in October 2021 (detailed from page 31 onwards). As a result he is now taking legal action.
What is of particular interest here is what Mr Packham says about the Scottish Gamekeeper’s Association’s involvement in the case:
The section of the statement about the SGA continues for a couple of pages – well worth reading! – and details what lengths they were prepared to go to concoct evidence that Mr Packham had forged the death threats against himself.
Perhaps Mr Fraser, who has according to Companies House has been a Director of SGA since 1st November 2012 (see here) and is currently its deputy chair, could explain his involvement in this?
Mr Fraser’s ongoing royal connections
When Mr Fraser’s address was given as Crathie on Farming Today, my ears pricked up it is so close to Balmoral. Information lodged at Companies House suggests that Mr Fraser resides at Catanellan, Crathie, Ballater, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, AB35 5TJ.
Catanellan is not on land owned by King Charles but is on the Abergeldie Estate which as put up for sale in 2021 and where the Royal Family leases the shooting rights (see here). This appears more than a coincidence. Whether this was because the Royal Family had no empty properties or whether they feared that allowing someone like Mr Fraser to live at Balmoral might risk damaging their reputation, what better than to ask the neighbouring estate to help out? Abergeldie’s sales brochure showed it had lots of empty properties.
The wider question here is whether King Charles has not just supported individual gamekeepers but may be providing other support to the Scottish Gamekeepers Association whose activities do not come cheap. Someone, for example, paid for those reports from the alleged handwriting experts in the Chris Packham case. Unfortunately, the SGA’s most recent (unaudited) accounts (see here) don’t show income and expenditure (not that they would show donations from the King), only that they employed 4 people in 2021 and at the end of the year had net assets of £203,421
King Charles needs to reform how he manages the royal estates
Part of explanation of why King Charles has such a poor record of managing his own land in Scotland from an environmental perspective (see here) and (here), is that he has far too much respect for those who work in the countryside and spout nonsense like Mr Fraser, whether this is about the numbers of red deer or Chris Packham forging death threats to himself.
It appears, however, that King Charles is not just poorly informed but is actively supporting people that are working to undermine conservation interests. On Farming Today, for example, Peter Fraser criticised NTS’s plans to reduce deer numbers at Glen Coe, claiming it would not be possible to do this without affecting jobs locally, when King Charles is patron of that organisation. While ostensibly supporting conservation organisations on the one hand, King Charles appears to be supporting people who are working to undermine them on the other.
King Charles, now he has been crowned, has a duty to start distancing himself from the SGA and listening to people who really do understand the countryside and have the public interest, rather than Scotland’s archaic sporting estate system, at heart. What better way to admit the error of his ways and start afresh than by asking Chris Packham, along with other conservation experts, up to Balmoral and Delnadamph to have a discussion on what he needs to change? The answer is quite simple for someone as rich as King Charles, bring deer numbers at Balmoral down to two per square kilometre, as they have done on the conservation part of Mar Lodge and following the example of Anders Povslen at Glen Feshie, and stop burning the moors and Delnadamph and Abergeldie.
From my experience some of the keepers in upper strathdon cannot be trusted by anyone as they dont even trust themselves so don’t believe one word they say it will be rubbish to suit their purpose
The SGA has worked the old lying principle very well over the years – if you are going to twist the truth keep on telling the lie, and eventually it will appear to be the accepted ‘truth’. King Charles appears to have been taken in by this over the years – because he has been too close to the SGA and its supporters, and it would appear has stopped thinking objectively about red deer numbers and driven grouse shooting, and the associated landscape ‘farming’ and environmental degradation.
It would be a real positive step if he were to invite Chris Packham and other environmental experts to Balmoral for discussions, and visit some Cairngorms Connect estates.
Invercauld Estate has a history of Raptor persecution and of also persecuting the tenant farmers, on old leases, to get the farmers to give up so land can be used for their gamebird shooting. The new style GKs believe they can go anywhere and have endangered and worried farm livestock using their vehicles, dogs and beaters. The current factor seems to be running the estate to the ground and is supported by its trust. The new and current Laird has no clue what is happening on his own estate and is unwilling to talk directly to his tenants. From my experience the Factor is turning tenants against tenants by getting them to report each other and allegedly promising the land to them if they help in getting long term leased tenants off by victimisation.
As a scientist writing a book on the conservation of Afrtropical protected areas, I find this fascinating. Many years ago at a meeting on elephant culling I suggested that African conservation officials be allowed to set density limits on Scottish red deer. Of course this was an attempt, by me, to show that we in the west dictate African wildlife conservation management, with little or no regard (often with contempt) to the people of the African continent. Bambi versus jumbo? The cultural constipation that impacts wildlife management are felt across continents…
Interesting that the stalkers concerned about losing their jobs in Glencoe work on estates owned by Belgian billionaires, the de Spoelberch family (owners of Stella Artois, etc) and the very wealthy London banking dynasty, the Flemings…
Have the SGA lobbied the estate owners to safeguard their employees’ roles? Presumably these iconic estates will always necessitate that their custodians employ people to manage and maintain them?
One to investigate further Parkswatch?
As I sit here, I watch a group of 7 young Red Deer hinds graze a neighbour’s croft field. They have been coming to our community of crofts at dawn and again almost every afternoon to take the good spring grass. Their springtime enthusiasm for the in-bye land has lasted for some weeks now. A short distance from them are three stags in moult. We have known of these three for several years. But our land holding is too small to do much about them. Anyway it is almost as if they know they are untouchable at this time of year.
Someone somewhere must apparently still sympathise with them . The Victorian notion of breeding up a viable sporting herd through a fair and “kind” closed season for the culling of these pests persists. Perhaps this touches on the reason why there are so many across Scottish hillsides today. One “open” 12 month culling season in a single year and arguably the problem they present to Scotland’s ecology and across marginal farmland today would be effectively halved quite quickly.? After one such a year the skill required to use the ground to stalk the remainder would become the real outdoors challenge it once was, long ago….over a century ago?