Craik and Ettrick

User00003

Well-Known Member
back in the 80's we had around 20,000 acres of stalking in Craik forest, for only £600 pa:lol:,,,however, of course prices went up and up, so in the end we gave it up and a German syndicate took over at around £2K pa, which I'm sure is now more in the region of £10K pa, god knows!..

nevertheless, I was just looking on google earth and reminiscing of the great stalking that once was, near Craik and Ettrick, and wondered if those forests are all owned by FC now or if there's still some private stalking to be obtained here and there at acceptable rates.

anyone live/stalk around there from the forum?
 
Hi PKL,

What was the name of the 20,000 acres? As I understand Craik Forest has always been FC? If more to the East (towards Hawick) or West (towards Moffat) there's several different Forestry companies in operation. That's a huge amount of land you are talking about for £600.
 
Hi PKL,

What was the name of the 20,000 acres? As I understand Craik Forest has always been FC? If more to the East (towards Hawick) or West (towards Moffat) there's several different Forestry companies in operation. That's a huge amount of land you are talking about for £600.

Oh, can't recall the company it was from, but not FC then, it was just a few miles out of hawick, you crossed a bridge on your right, and then came to the forest region, the stalking was 10,000 acres on either side of the road heading into the forest...some excellent woodcock shooting down by the river too! back then the trees where young, a weeks stalking could produce 20-40 big 6 pointers in the summer, no problem!

ahhh..the days...:rolleyes:
 
A big part of Craik on the Ettrick side is owned by buccleuch estate ,but the timber is managed by the Fc, Buccleugh retain the stalking (Ropelawshiel)..
Ettrichall is privatly owned and managed by a good friend of mine,my avatar is on that property....
Three other hill farms have gone over to trees in the upper Ettric area this year, Scottish woodland is managing one of them ,but not sure about the others..
There was a young red stag shot in Craik last winter, in the lamp of course by the FC ranger, apparantly thought it was a Sika,easy mistake to make i guess:rolleyes:
 
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