Red Stags E-Book

alastair macleod

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Red Deer have been in Scotland or at least 11,000 years. With the re-afforestation of Scotland underway there is conflict in the hills as one body wants to rapidly reduce deer numbers while sporting estates seek to maintain their stocks.

Tempers run high and relationships suffer as locals find themselves on opposite sides of the fence.

Leseprobe

Alastair Macleod

Red Stags

To when there once was a natural forest and fewer human demands.BookRix GmbH & Co. KG81371 Munich

Red Stags

Sutherland, North Highlands, February 2015

Steenie Macpherson was making his way along the estate boundary, following a set of deer slots in the snow. It was late February. The sky overhead was leaden, spots of snow drifted down. A rowan still held its bright red berries on its higher branches. He stopped; he thought he had heard a sound, like distant fireworks. All was silent now, until his boots recommenced crunching through the surface. The tracks before him bundled together at a break in the fence. Brown hairs on the wires indicated that the deer had forced their way through.

There had been a deep cold for days; the temperature at night went below -15 degrees Celsius. The surface of the snow was a hard crust.

Desperate for browse the stags had pushed through to the new plantation and the green shoots of fir. He took a deep breath, the air searing into his lungs as he stepped through the gash; then he witnessed the crumpled heaps of the beasts. About 20 stags, gaping wounds in their side. They lay stiff and cold. He took out his smart phone and began to take pictures.

Already weak from lack of food and the cold, the cullers had hit them as they stood against the deer fence. Was it automatic fire? Each stag seemed to show several wounds.

The Commission were in their rights to cull deer on their land and eating the young trees but it seemed so barbaric.

These stags could have come back onto the estate and been quarry for the autumn shoot; several were 12 pointers.

He heard the roar of a fleet of ATV’s.

Davie Grant, Ross Muir, Colin MacAulay; he recognised some of the Doonie Deer Control group; but the others were strangers. All wore grey and white camouflaged jackets and trousers and sat aboard their ATVs with their rifles slung behind them.

Each ATV had a trailer. The local men set to gralloching the stags while the strangers fired up their chain saws.

“Wit were ye thinkin Davie – ye ken thur from oor estate.”

Davie looked up.

“Ah it's yersel Steenie. They wur on Commission land and at the young trees.”

“Ye can see they were starving; hiv ye no compassion man.”

Another man approached. Alan MacBeath, Forest Officer.

“You know our rule Steenie, “If their brown their down”,"

Steenie looked back at him. The thin moustache bore a hoar frost.

“And who’s yir new men?” said Steenie

“On loan Steenie, on loan.”

“Ah ken wit that means; military.”

“They need to practice on live targets Steenie, virtual reality doesn’a cut it.”

“Ye mean ye canna hear the screams and smell the blood.” “Now Steenie let’s not get emotional, my contractors have a job to do.”

“And so do I,” said Steenie.”Wit will ah tell the Laird?”

“The truth Steenie, the truth. They were on the wrong side of the fence.”

“Poor critters,” said Steenie looking at the heap of stags.

“And when you kill them on the hill in the autumn is it any differ?” Said MacBeath.

“It is, they are in no fear and, we get the benefit of it.”

“We? You mean the estate and the Laird.”

“Farquhar Maclean pays mah wages.”