- Grouse shooting is cancelled on the Queen’s 50,000-acre Scottish estate
- The grouse hunting season started yesterday on August the ‘Glorious 12th’
- But heavy snowfall at the end of last year has reduced game bird breeding
- Shooting grouse is relished by the Royal Family on their Balmoral holiday
By Sami Quadri and Colin Fernandez for the Daily Mail
Published: 18:25 EDT, 12 August 2019 | Updated: 23:07 EDT, 12 August 2019
Grouse shooting has been cancelled at Balmoral this year due to a fall in bird numbers. Kate Middleton out shooting in Scotland in 2009
It is a long-held tradition in the royal calendar on the Queen’s 50,000-acre Scottish estate.
But grouse shooting has been cancelled at Balmoral this year due to a fall in bird numbers.
Yesterday was the ‘Glorious 12th’ of August – the start of the grouse hunting season.
Shooting grouse is relished by the Royal Family on their summer holidays at Balmoral but heavy snowfall at the end of last year – followed by a dry and humid start to this summer – has reduced game bird breeding.
An estate source said: ‘Grouse numbers go up and down but this year they have plummeted.
‘There probably will be no grouse shooting on Balmoral this season. It’s very disappointing. There is still [deer] stalking.’
Other popular activities at Balmoral include horse-riding, picnics and country walks.
One person who may not be disappointed is the Duchess of Sussex, who is no shooting fan.
But Meghan did attend a lunch following a pheasant shoot at the Queen’s estate in Sandringham, Norfolk, which scotched rumours she had banned her husband Prince Harry from shooting.
Shooting grouse is relished by the Royal Family on their summer holidays at Balmoral (above) but heavy snowfall at the end of last year – followed by a dry and humid start to this summer – has reduced game bird breeding [File photo]
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