Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i The Field

Plans to make deerstalking training mandatory in Scotland risk leaving the country short of deer managers, rural groups have warned. The National Farmers Union (NFU) Scotland and BASC have written to agriculture minister Jim Fairlie outlining their concerns about the consequences of these requirements, which are proposed under the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill. Lowland deer numbers have expanded considerably in recent years. An important contribution to managing local populations is made by farmers, who shoot small numbers but who collectively make a significant impact. The draft bill proposes that anyone shooting deer in Scotland will be required to undertake compulsory training. “Lowland farmers are at the frontline of managing Scotland’s lowland deer population, often on a voluntary basis and at their own expense,” said Duncan Macalister, vice president of NFU…

Until 22 February  Luminescence: A Winter Light Trail Swinton estate, North Yorkshire Tel: 01765 680972 swintonestate.com 1 New Year’s Day Meeting Cheltenham Racecourse, Gloucestershire Tel: 0344 579 3019 thejockeyclub.co.uk 3 Unibet Veterans’ Chase Day Sandown Park Racecourse, Surrey Tel: 0344 5793012 thejockeyclub.co.uk 4 Larkhill Racing Club Point-to-Point Larkhill, Wiltshire Tel: 01933 304795 larkhillracing.com 8-10 Any Variety (except cocker) Spaniel Championship Invermark estate, Brechin, Angus Tel: 01296 318540 thekennelclub.org.uk 14 Jose Souto Game Seminar Westminster Capital City College, London Tel: 020 7802 8391 thevincentrooms.co.uk 14-15 LAMMA Show NEC, Birmingham Email: events@agriconnect.com lammashow.com 16-18 Deer Stalking Certificate Level 1 Ashbourne, Derbyshire Tel: 01538 308697 nationalgamekeepers.org.uk 17 South Wold Point-to-Point Revesby Park, Lincolnshire Tel: 07786 837602 midlandspointing.com 25 Heythrop Point-to-Point Cocklebarrow Farm, Gloucestershire Email: ab@cocklebarrowraces.com cocklebarrowraces.com 28 Yorkshire Farming Conference Great Yorkshire Showground,…

Email charlotte.mackaness@futurenet.com BIG BANG 20TH ANNIVERSARY TITANIUM CERAMIC WRISTWATCH Hublot Limited to just 500 pieces and made from grade-five titanium – the strongest there is – this watch is one for true adventurers. Price £17,900 Tel 020 7499 5765 hublot.com HONEYCOMB STITCH JUMPER Last of England A two-ply 100% cashmere jumper knitted in Hawick using Grade-A yarn produced in Kinross. Made with high tension, to reduce piling, that will soften with age. Shown in Holly Green. Price £260 Email ahoy@lastofengland.co.uk lastofengland.co.uk FRIDA GILET By Søren Pure new wool blankets are used to make this colourful gilet featuring oversized buttons and generous pockets. The cosiest kind of upcycling. Price £260 Email hello@bysoren.co.uk bysoren.com CAMBRIDGE WEEKENDER Swaine A classic holdall made from bridle leather with brass fixtures and a sturdy steel-frame top…

PATRICK Grant goes through life at quite the clip. Brought up in Edinburgh, he played rugby for Scotland at under-18 and under-19 levels. An injury ended his career but not his love of adrenaline, and after graduating from the University of Leeds in materials science he worked in Vail as a meeter and greeter. The hours weren’t long, which meant a lot of time for skiing, plus a free ski pass and early access to the slopes. Now 53, Grant says he’s always had a lot of stamina. Nowhere is this more obvious than in his work ethic, learnt from his father “who on his days off would spend 10 hours digging in the garden”. When at Cookson & Clegg, the Blackburn clothing factory he saved from closure in 2015,…

Rupert Bates talks to Savills’ regenerative agricultural specialist and keen runner Ed Horton about ‘hybrid’ farming, natural capital, political change and the benefits of a ‘weird’ skill set A CONSIDERABLE problem for ultramarathon-running farmers – a somewhat niche group, I suspect – is that they cannot shake off the urge to stop and look over other farmers’ hedges, victory denied by the lure of a spectacular crop of wheat. When natural capital is your business and endurance sports your pastime, you get to see a lot of fields around the world, and Ed Horton of Savills was about to head off to run through the Namibian desert after our chat. And no, his shorts are not salmon pink. Horton is a fascinating recent addition to the Savills team. Fortunately, he…

THERE IS something about the last day of the shooting season that speaks of school desk lids being firmly shut and caps being thrown into the air. All winter long, from early September, keepers and beaters, guns and gundogs, lodge chefs and fragrant front-of-house managers have worked all hours to produce fine sport and sociable hospitality. And then suddenly, for another year, it is gone. So the last day of the season is, in many ways, a ‘final hurrah’ where the significant pressures of a shooting day are to some extent relaxed, not by standards but by a cheerfulness that says ‘it is the end of term’. Nowhere was this in better evidence than at the Miltons shoot on Exmoor, one of six in the spectacular Loyton Sporting portfolio. Its…

ABOUT A CENTURY and a half ago, a modest display in the front of The Field’s office in The Strand created a sensation. It was a window into a new world for man and salmon. Naturalist Frank Buckland created what The Field described as a ‘rude but effective’ hatching-apparatus model to provide ‘pleasure and amusement [for] many thousands of [British] people who have certainly never seen a salmon alive before’. Buckland, who enjoyed the popularity of a modern-day pop star, wanted to use The Field’s window to support his view that the technique of artificial propagation offered the best means to replenish ‘salmonless’ rivers and provide a healthy, affordable protein boost to a staid and underwhelming British diet. Artificial propagation was seen as the answer to the crimes of excessive…

Send queries to Rosie Macdonald, Country Queries Editor, The Field, Future Publishing PLC, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 6JR. For more, visit: thefield.co.uk Email country-queries@hectareshouse.co.uk Follow Rosie on Instagram @dizzy_m Strap in for a quick fix Q The strap on my gun case has broken and I need to replace it in haste. My local chap is too busy. I have tried a short stirrup leather but it’s not quite right. Can you help, even with a temporary fix? CCD, by email A For a fast and effective solution contact Fine Shooting Accessories (FSA), which can supply a pair or single leather gun-case straps in four colours and seven widths from 19mm to 38mm. It recommends the conker strap for old cases. A pair costs £175 and a single £100. All the straps…

Spicy pheasant taquitos This Mexican-inspired dish of fried flour tortillas stuffed with cooked pheasant, cheese, herbs and spice can be prepped in advance and cooked just before serving. Serves 8 Pheasant taquitos 2 tbsp cold-pressed rape or olive oil4 skinless pheasant breasts, sinews removed200g cream cheese 150g cheddar, grated20g fresh coriander, stalks and leaves finely chopped2 tbsp ground cumin 1-2 tsp red chilli flakes8 x mini/18cmdiameter flour tortillasOil for frying40g butter, melted Relish 150g shallots1 lime, zest and juice20g coriander To serve 2 baby gem lettuce, shredded2 limes, each cut into quarters8 tbsp sour cream Pheasant taquitos  1 Add the cold-pressed oil to a frying pan on a medium heat. Season then brown the pheasant on both sides and cook for a couple of minutes until just done. Allow to…

Did you know? On 30 January 1965, former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill became the first person outside of the Royal Family to receive a state funeral in almost 30 years. Quote of the month “To those who have to put away their guns at the end of this luckily full-length month, January days are precious as gold”Scolopax, The Field, January 1947 COLLECTIVE NOUN: A DECEIT OF LAPWING Birds to spot: Waxwings, snow buntings and fieldfares FIELD FACTS Battles Rorke’s Drift, 22 January 1879 Dogger Bank, 24 January 1915 British festivals The Burning of the Clavie, 11 January Burns Night, 25 January QUIZ CORNER 1. Which stately home was bought by the Royal Family in 1852? 2. Which equine children’s book was published in 1877 and has sold upwards of…

A bumper crop of mast that has helped bolster grey squirrel populations could have a serious knock-on impact on young and broadleaved trees, according to concerned conservationists. “With an abundant supply of seeds and nuts, we can expect better grey squirrel survival rates through winter, and more resources for breeding, so inevitably populations will increase,” said Charles Dutton, vice chairman of the European Squirrel Initiative. Currently, evidence suggests 2025 was a ‘mast year’: when certain tree species – including oaks, beeches, hazels and chestnuts – produce a much larger crop of nuts, seeds and fruit than normal. “The upshot of this is that when grey squirrels increase in number, so we see more damage to trees – particularly by bark stripping,” explained Dutton. Young, broadleaved trees are particularly vulnerable, especially…

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Letters may be edited for clarity or space A burning shame I read Ian Coghill’s Comment piece [November 2025 issue] through gritted teeth, not because it wasn’t an excellent analysis of the current situation but because more than six years ago I helped Derbyshire farmer and recognised master of restoring moorlands Geoff Eyre set out his proven expertise in a short report titled Moorland Regeneration: a Summary of Over 30 Years’ Practical Management for Conservation. (If any reader would like a copy, I still have a few.) We sent it out far and wide, including to Natural England and the NGOs; answer came there none. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the inconvenient truths and evidenced realities it set out. Geoff could boast not just of preventing wildfires on the moors he…

NDC AS WE accelerate into 2026, with the old year shrinking in the rear-view mirror, it is probably worth reflecting on all the wonderful sport we’ve enjoyed so far, while also rejoicing in the fact that some of the best is yet to come. Rather than slumping in front of the racing or scrolling through the new-year offers of Spanish partridges or Norwegian salmon that ping into our virtual lives, I find that the best tonic for the January blues is simply to crack on and get out into the field. Everybody talks of January pheasants in reverential tones but there is so much more on offer if you look for it. One of my favourite ways to spend a sharp day at this time of year is to grab the…

THE WORD ‘legendary’ is often applied promiscuously to sporting guns but is well deserved in the case of the Browning B25 Superposed, which has just celebrated its 100th birthday. The first mass-produced over-and-under, it remains a flagship for Browning with around 350,000 manufactured in Belgium and some 30 bespoke guns still made annually at the John M Browning collection workshop (‘Custom Shop’ as was) at Herstal. The B25 has inspired countless copies: more than a million guns based on it or derivative actions have now been produced in total. The Superposed is a member of an exclusive coterie of sporting shotguns that have changed gunmaking history. Other qualifiers include the Anson & Deeley boxlock; the Purdey-Beesley and Holland & Holland sidelock side-by-sides; and the Boss (1909), Woodward (1911), Beretta 68…

THE GROUND may be cold and stony but inside lights are twinkling and the tantalising aroma of mulled wine fills the air. No matter whether you’re a glutton for glühwein or think it’s a crime against viticulture, there’s something undeniably jovial about a hot and boozy beverage in what can be a gloomy time of year. But how and when did these drinks wrap their toasty tendrils around our winter traditions? Humans have been heating alcohol for almost as long as they’ve been making it, often as a delicious way to stave off the chill winter air. The heat from the alcohol combined with the warmth of the liquid can keep you cosy. Mixing other ingredients into hot tipples is similarly ancient. Residues of herbed wine in Egyptian vessels have…

YOU DON’T need to be a mad-keen gardener to know about the native ‘fair maids of February’: those small, white flowers that bring many gardens, parks and woodland sharply into focus in the dreariest month of the year. The common snowdrop, or Galanthus nivalis to give it its botanical name, is dear to all our hearts, if only because it seems so defiant in the face of hard frosts and snow. Snowdrops brave horrible weather, come up year after year – for ever – and, best of all, a long-established, thickly populated stand of them in woodland looks like a thin covering of pristine snow. The fact that Galanthus nivalis is not in fact native but is naturalised in gardens and in the wild (having been introduced into Britain no…

HAVE YOU ever looked at Chile on a map? It’s the most deliciously bonkers shape: both the longest and narrowest country in the world, stretching some 2,671 miles north to south (roughly the same distance as San Francisco to New York) and just 40 miles west to east at its narrowest point – about the same as, well, Tunbridge Wells to Brighton. There are deserts in the north, lakes and ice fields in the south, a vast ocean in the west and mighty mountains in the east. What other nation can boast that? The first time I visited this wonderful, warmly hospitable country, I flew to Santiago from Auckland, New Zealand, via Lima. Having travelled for weeks, I had been knocked for six by my journey and had no idea…

A Murmuration of Starlings There’s a persistent idea that collective nouns are somehow antiquated. Indeed, many are; take an ‘exaltation’ of larks, which dates from the 15th century. But English has been magpie-like in its acquisitiveness. The majority of the collective terms that feature in this new edition are medieval in origin: a ‘business’ of ferrets and a ‘deceit’ of lapwings, for example. Steve Palin has reconsidered his former idea that they had to have stood the test of time, as social media has proved to be fertile ground for the growth of new phrases, and the expansive list at the back includes many more contemporary terms. This is a particularly apt book for readers of The Field, as Palin observes that ‘it is the hunting fraternity even today which…

THE GUEST is, or ought to be, as irresponsible as the April cuckoo since his sole duties consist of cheerful acquiescence and a still tongue between drives,’ wrote PRC, a Field contributor, in May 1936. This is only a partial truth, for one must also never arrive anywhere empty-handed. Yet finding an appropriate gift to bestow upon a friend to thank them for a well-executed shoot, a day on the river or following hounds can prove tricky. For old chums, homemade tinctures for the filling of hip flasks or chunky kitchen marmalades that would make Paddington proud are just the ticket. However, for more formal acquaintances where a boozy but well-travelled fruit cake and a scattering of fishing flies won’t quite pass muster, an offering foraged from one of London’s…

New deer management qualification launched The Deer Management Certificate Level 3 – an advanced vocational qualification to formally recognise the highest level of academic achievement and practical expertise in deer management – has been launched by the Shooting & Hunting Academy. It is open to anyone holding a Proficient Deer Stalking Certificate Level 2 or Deer Stalking Certificate Level 2. Passing the port to show your support Taylor’s Port and the Secret Bottle Shop have come together to help raise funds for the GWCT. There is a dedicated page on the website of the Secret Bottle Shop from which Taylor’s will donate 5% of the retail sales value of all port purchased. Visit: bit.ly/portpartnership Plan to protect iconic lake The first coordinated, science-led programme of practical steps in more than…

A new GWCT project is under way to tag common snipe in three locations across the British Isles. The study aims to uncover where these elusive waders migrate to breed during the summer, while also allowing us to understand the reasons behind their decline and how best to support their conservation. Researchers caught and tagged 20 birds in Cornwall, Ireland and eastern Scotland in 2025, and will return to the same locations for the next two years to fit GPS tags to more birds. These are migrant snipe that overwinter here. This is the first UK study of its kind on snipe migration, and pilot studies have already shown tagged birds travelling thousands of miles, arriving from as far away as Russia, Iceland and Scandinavia. Though once a familiar sight…

THINKING about the new year and new directions reminds me of an email I received from one of the great characters of the West. Among other things, the estate owner in question always had an eye for any opportunity and only a passing interest in trivialities such as the law. He wrote: ‘Please be advised that there is an opportunity here to stalk a feral seven-year-old Highland bullock with a Greifelt Dreiling Rifle. Jan to 16 Apr over three days to allow for skinning, extraction and so on and preparation of horns (four litres capacity).’ I replied that while I thought a feral Highland bullock might well be a worthy adversary, his plan was morally indefensible and against the law. Nevertheless, our correspondence continued – I suspect we were both…

This next generation of sportsmen and women work hard as a team, not just in the classroom or on the sports pitch but in the field. They are learning that lifelong passion is a marathon not a sprint SEDBERGH School, set in the magnificent Howgill Fells in Cumbria, is synonymous with rugby, the Wilson Run (a gruelling 10-mile fell race) and a can-do attitude. Founded in 1525, it has just celebrated its 500th anniversary. The school hymn may attest that it is the mountain fastness of Cautley, Calf and Winder that makes a Sedberghian but mixed in is a hefty dose of four core principles: humility, ambition, resilience and kindness. All of these are roundly demonstrated on the driven game shoot, managed by the pupils, that is offered as an…

SPORTING SUSTENANCE After a day getting to grips with the Mells Manor estate’s rolling Somerset downland, guns can retreat to The Talbot Inn. It’s a sporting sanctuary with low-slung beams and candlelit nooks in the picture-perfect village of Mells. Book out the private dining room [pictured, above] that seats 35 guests next to an open grill fire [pictured, right], where you can opt for an £85, five-course shoot banqueting menu (think chalkstream trout tartare and venison carpaccio) or an unfussy pie-and-pudding option (£30). Don’t leave without peeking inside St Andrew’s Church next door, with its stately Sir Alfred Munnings sculpture of Lieutenant Edward Horner. Visit: talbotinn.com THE FIELD’S BLACK BOOK Bring yourself back to life post-Hogmanay with a showstopping New Year’s Day brunch in Gleneagles’ Edinburgh outpost the Gleneagles Townhouse…