Ardtaraig, Argyll

Guns enjoy a unique sporting experience on a Highland estate where the partridges fly like grouse and one day is never enough

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A late afternoon sun dapples the hillside, and staccato shots reverberate across the glen. Birds appear in a flash, lightning fast, so it is easy to miss them if one's concentration breaks even for a moment

ARDTARAIG House is an imposing lodge nestled on the shores of Loch Striven on the Cowal peninsula. This wild and inlet-ridden landscape sits at the southern edge of the Trossachs National Park in Argyll and Bute, on Scotland’s ‘Adventure Coast’. The 8,000-acre estate has been owned by the Geddes family since 1923, and is supported by farming, renewable energy and commercial woodland. During the Second World War it was requisitioned by the Admiralty as a base called HMS Varbel II for the 12th Submarine Flotilla (midget submarines/X-Craft), which took part in the daring raid on the German battleship Tirpitz in Norway. After the war the Geddes brought in their cousins, the Chalmers-Watsons, to work in a family partnership that continues to this day, producing appropriately adventurous shooting.

On a dreich October evening, with gales threatening, the thick grey stone exterior of Ardtaraig disguises the welcome to come. After a cocktail to wash away the rigours of long travel by car, ferry and even plane, dinner is a jolly affair headed by Keith Chalmers-Watson. He explains that the estate offers an experience akin to an Edwardian shooting party, the benchmark being double days and superb hospitality. “On some commercial shoots you are just a customer,” he says. “But here you are something more; you are part of a family shoot.” The guns are all members of a syndicate, and places are available for new guns.