Walter Winans

The multimillionaire marksman, sculptor, artist, author, horse breeder and Olympic medallist was a truly remarkable character, says Sir Johnny Scott

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WHEN IN the early 1970s I stayed at Fasnakyle, the 20,000-acre deer forest at the east end of Glen Affric, a series of faded watercolours hung in the dining room. They depicted Victorian gentlemen shooting from stone butts with double-barrelled rifles at rivers of red deer pouring past. These were painted by the extraordinary Russian-born American multimillionaire Walter Winans: marksman, sculptor, artist, author, breeder of award-winning trotting horses and Olympic medallist.

His passion was shooting running deer and boar in the Continental fashion, and he believed the open landscape of the Highlands provided the perfect opportunity to pursue his favourite pastime.

In the 1880s Winans acquired the sporting rights of 220,000 acres of Scotland from the Beauly Firth to the Atlantic coast, including the deer forests of Craskie, Fasnakyle, Glen Cannich, Glenstrathfarrar, Glomach, Killilan, Luibnadamph, Patt and Kintail.

The costs involved were breathtaking. The rents alone came to £20,000 — more than £2m in today’s money — and then he had mile upon mile of fencing put up to keep the deer enclosed, and scores of rifle butts laboriously built on the high ground. Ihave seen remains of some when stalking on Fasnakyle at nearly 3,000 feet. Apart from employing numerous full-time stalkers and other staff on the various estates, moving vast numbers of deer over an enormous area and often for several consecutive days at a time involved armies of beaters, watchers, flagmen, stops, signallers and pony men to transport guests and loaders up to the butts.