The BBC’s Highland Cops programme has entered its third series and episode 2 features the police investigation in to an active Goshawk nest that had been shot out on a sporting estate near Kingussie, on the western side of the Cairngorms National Park.
This investigation took place in June 2024 – see here for the police’s appeal for information at the time.
Officers had received a report of the active Goshawk nest being found abandoned in suspicious circumstances in a forest near Loch Gynack, and the programme follows experienced wildlife crime officer PC Dan Sutherland throughout his investigation.
The commentary from Dan is excellent – he speaks calmly and with authority about the link between illegal raptor persecution and gamebird shooting estates, and how the criminals have been getting away with their crimes for so long. That’s not opinion or conjecture, it’s based on factual evidence, and I applaud him for being prepared to say it on camera, knowing full well that it will attract vicious retaliation from some within the gamebird shooting industry, including, I have no doubt, official letters to his superior officers demanding punitive action against him.
Dan visits the abandoned Goshawk nest where he finds empty shotgun cartridges at the base of the tree and a shotgun wad is found lodged in the bottom of the nest.
The nest is removed for forensic examination, along with several nearby tree branches. They’re taken to the Kincraig Wildlife Highland Park for x-rays, which reveal a large number of shotgun pellets:
As Dan says, the evidence is damning.
He then teams up with PC Gavin Ross from the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) and they set out to visit all the people who legally own shotguns in the area, to either rule them out of the enquiry or to see if they can provide assistance.
The first person they visit is a gamekeeper who lives on the estate. They knock at his house and a woman speaks to them through a crack in the door, telling them he’s not in. As the officers leave to go and visit the next person on their list, Dan gets a phone call from a solicitor who tells him that none of his clients will be talking to the police without him being present.
“It’s the nature of the beast”, says Dan.
Dan and Gavin comment to one another that the speed of the solicitor’s phone call is probably some kind of record – coming in less than ten minutes after they’d knocked on the gamekeeper’s door. Their wry smiles tell you this is a common occurrence and was not unexpected. It puts a halt to their investigation until they can organise a time to meet with the shotgun owners and their legal representative.
If someone had shot out a Goshawk nest on my land, potentially killing any adults or chicks present on the nest, and the police knocked on the door to see if I could assist, I’d be welcoming them in with open arms, breaking out the tea and posh biscuits and offering up all the assistance I could muster to help them find the culprit, especially if there was evidence that armed criminals had been active on my property. I certainly wouldn’t be calling in my attack dog solicitor to warn off the cops. Why would I?
At the end of the programme there’s an update on the case – the police did meet with the shotgun owners and their solicitor. The text on the screen says:
‘However, with no new leads the case has been closed‘.
I guess it was probably the usual ‘no comment’ interviews, then.
According to Andy Wightman’s excellent Who Owns Scotland website, Loch Gynack is situated on the Glenbanchor & Pitmain Estate, whose owner, Pitmain Holding Ltd, is registered in Grand Cayman:
It’s not the first time a police investigation has taken place there in relation to suspected wildlife crime. In 2019, four Greylag Geese were found poisoned at Loch Gynack – toxicology results showed they’d ingested the banned pesticide Carbofuran, so dangerous that it’s an offence to even possess this chemical in Scotland, let alone use it.
The birds had been found by estate workers who reported the incident to the police. There wasn’t any information about whether poisoned bait had been discovered and so no information about where they’d come in to contact with the Carbofuran, although given how fast-acting it is and the fact the geese were found dead together in one place, I’d think it unlikely they’d been poisoned far away.
Nobody was charged and the estate was not subject to a General Licence restriction.
Back to the Goshawk case…
The police were first notified about the abandoned Goshawk nest on 8 June 2024. This was after the enactment of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 on 30 April 2024, which introduced a licence for grouse shooting in Scotland.
I don’t know whether the Glenbanchor & Pitmain Estate applied for a grouse shooting licence in 2024. I don’t even know if they still shoot Red Grouse there (they certainly have done previously – e.g. see here and here) or whether they’ve switched to Red-legged Partridges and Pheasants as alternative quarry due to low grouse stocks, in which case they’d be exempt from needing a grouse shooting licence because the Scottish Government refused to include the shooting of RLPs and Pheasants as part of the requirement for a grouse shooting licence, despite being warned about this massive loophole.
It would be interesting to know whether (a) Pitmain Estate did apply for a grouse shooting licence in 2024, (b) if so, did NatureScot grant them a licence even though this wildlife crime investigation was ongoing, and (c) if the estate does have a five-year grouse shooting licence, will the licence be withdrawn following this incident or was the Goshawk nest beyond the area where the licence applicant indicated Red Grouse are ‘taken or shot’ (yet another loophole)?
Aside from the questions around a potential grouse shooting licence, I’ve been interested in whether NatureScot would impose a General Licence restriction following the police investigation in to the shot out Goshawk nest.
In June this year I submitted an FoI to NatureScot to ask about the status of any pending General Licence restriction decisions. My main focus was on the case concerning a Golden Eagle called ‘Merrick’ who had been shot and killed whilst she was sleeping in the Scottish Borders in October 2023.
You’ll already know that NatureScot has still not made a decision on whether to impose a General Licence restriction as a result of that crime, two years after it happened (see here).
But as well as asking about the Merrick case, I also asked how many other cases were pending.
NatureScot wrote back to me in July and said this:
You can see that the case involving the shot out Goshawk nest is included on the list (‘an incident that occurred in the Highland Council area in June 2024‘).
NatureScot says it asked Police Scotland in December 2024 for the information package NS would need to begin the process of considering whether to impose a General Licence restriction.
Seven months on, in July 2025 when NatureScot responded to my FoI, Police Scotland hadn’t provided the information to NatureScot.
The Highland Cops programme demonstrates the evidential difficulties faced by the police when investigating suspected wildlife crimes, particularly those that take place on privately-owned gamebird shooting estates, and the lengths the police will go to to find out who was responsible. It was the very reason that the Scottish Parliament introduced grouse shoot licensing as part of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024.
The efforts made by PC Dan Sutherland and his colleagues were exemplary in this case. But someone, somewhere, has dropped the ball in the later stages of the enforcement process by not providing an information package in a timely manner. That’s just not good enough.
The Highland Cops episode (series 3, episode 2) is available on the BBC iPlayer here. It’s well worth an hour of your time.
Raptor Persecution UK 
It was NEAR an estate. It would seem your just hell bent to bleet your bs on suspicion and not hard facts. I’ve seen antis shooting at young fledglings before all dressed up in tweeds apart from the muppethplding the camera who was wearing a LACS hoodie!
You guys are pathetic and disgusting.
Greg,
Try watching the programme and I’d encourage you to pay particular attention at 8 minutes 24 seconds, where the narrator says this:
“As well as wildlife, the Highlands is also home to Scotland’s highest number of private shooting estates, where deer and gamebirds are hunted for sport. Today, Dan is investigating an incident on one such estate, in the Cairngorms”.
it does not say NEAR an estate,it says ” it had been shot out on a sporting estate near Kingussie, on the western side of the Cairngorms National Park.”
I wrote to Naturescot on the 30th September, as a concerned citizen, after reading a blog on here about the shooting of Merrick, the GE asking them why it was taking so long to make a decision regarding restricting the estate’s grouse shooting licence, no reply, I wrote to them again on the 13th October, still no reply. I will keep emailing them.
This is what you’re up against, it would appear that neither the Government or their quangos have any interest in actually helping to prevent wildlife crimes or impose any meaningful legislation, what is the point of them, they only pay lip service
“I wrote to Naturescot on the 30th September…” “no reply, I wrote to them again on the 13th October, still no reply. I will keep emailing them”
Good for you! When you re-write you could copy in your constituency MP and/or your MSP. You could also copy in your local press…
Mention that NatureSot are refusing to respond to you, so that NatureScot know politicians and the press are also seeing it.
Best of luck:-)
Good idea, I will do that
I think we know which ones are pathetic and disgusting mate. My one consolation is that imbeciles like you who deny the obvious are what will help us end grouse shooting forever. If you really cared about your so called sport you’d help catch the so called bad apples. But your ignorance will help us finish you off. Thanks mate. Carry on
Hey Greg. Are your comments here posted with the express intention of making the plastic countryside mob look even more stupid and dishonest than they already are?
So despite the very best intentions of the Scottish government hurdles are still being put in the way of any landowner being sanctioned for raptor killing.
“So despite the very best intentions of the Scottish government…”
I am far from convinced that the Scottish Government gave ‘the very best intentions’… regarding the recent legislation:-( Why did they allow the applicant alone to decide how much of his land would be covered by a license, among other failings…
xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx xxxxx. And I very much doubt that the gamekeeper, who lives on the estate, was out when they knocked at his house. The woman’s actions, to only speak to them through a crack in the door, telling them he’s not in. Yes, we all believe that one. Utterly pathetic. All in my opinion, of course.
xxxxx shooting estates, also in my opinion, have a lot to answer for. It is more than just coincidence so many raptors finish up either dead or missing on xxxxx shooting estates. Someone must be protecting them.
I live locally to Kingussie and walk the Pitmain and Banchor estates on a regular basis. Four years ago Peregrines on crags above Loch Gynack attempted to nest and they were shot by xxxxx xxxxx, I observed him coming down from the crags with shotgun, this after a member of the public had reported another Peregrine shooting to the RSPB, this was all reported to investigations at RSPB. Again due to lack of hard evidence no prosecution followed. For clarification the shot Goshawk nest was very very close to release pens for Pheasant and Red l Partridge and I have seen Goshawks hunting right by the pens over the last few years.
Ruth in reply to your query re grouse shooting on both estates? There has been no driven grouse shooting on the Banchor estate for many years due to lack of sufficent grouse, this despite a huge increase in Muirburn. Pitmain is the same story with virtually no driven grouse shooting in the last few years. Pheasant and Red L Partridge stocking numbers have increased massively over the last few years on both estates and are now edging up onto the higher ground as grouse decline, the estates are switching to stocked game birds. Both estates continue with huge amounts of muirburn despite the failure of grouse stocks. Nick Kempe’s excellent “Parkswatch” blog has numerous reports on this and also spurious forestry grants, and planning applications for various xxxxx estate track proposals. Both estates are a blight on my local area.
Oh no, it’s a nosey do-gooder! Do you know you are taking half the fun and the wilful self-delusion of omnipotence out of keepering. Causing young keepers to feel ill at ease while doing their good work and leaving the industry because they feel like they’re being watched, etc, etc.
Well done! I wish every estate had one or two, what a difference that would make.
p.s. remiss of me not to say well done to PC Sutherland and colleagues & helpers. No (legal) result this time but hopefully they will maintain their morale and keep this positive approach on future cases. At least the people he is up against in his area know somebody cares and tries, and this in itself will make them have to work harder, look over their shoulders a bit more and will piss them off to an extent. If every area north & south of UK had police as interested as this what a difference that would make.
Yes the peregrine shooting was a little earlier than the poisoning of the geese. There’s clearly a criminal or criminals active here. It’s quite telling the estate have never made a comment on the goshawk shooting. The police action was excellent. What is the National Park doing about it?
Why is the National Park allowing such obscene numbers of pheasants & red-legged partridges to be released, this would never happen in a National Park abroad. Not only that, they are released next door to a National Nature Reserve, the Insh Marshes. Blackcock is the motif of Kingussie Golf Club, previously leking on the uppermost green. Since the mass release of these exotic game birds there are no black grouse there or on Pitmain in general. The neighbouring estate to east, Balavil, use to have a regular lek of 6 males but since the estate was sold, the new regime annually release thousands of pheasants & red-legged partridges and now the blackcock have gone. There is still a viable population on Glen Banchor but if the Pitmain regime continues to mass release game birds, the remaining black grouse there will disappear. The previous owners of Glen Banchor were quite content to have a few days walked up grouse shooting, but the new Pitmain regime is into intensification of game bird shooting, which will be to the demise of not just black grouse but to biodiversity in general.
Having watched the programme, the estate had a well oiled process when the cops turned up. First, deny any gamekeepers are in the vicinity, and then within half an hour a solicitor is phoning up saying none of the estate workers would be speaking to the police without representation. You would think if anyone was shooting illegally on the estate’s land they would be phoning the police demanding acting action but quite the reverse, as did happen with a deer shot in a previous series. Case Closed!
I’ve never understood the mentality!
Police knock on door of Gamekeeper’s house. Gamekeeper or wife gets on phone to Estate office. Estate office calls solicitor. Solicitor calls Police HQ. Police HQ calls officer. All in 10 minutes! Amazing!
Wish I could get through to official bodies on phone as quick as that.
Thanks for letting us know about the programme, RPUK has such a vast knowledge / awareness & reach of anything & everything raptor / raptor persecution related. You don’t seem to miss a trick.
I (maybe wrongly) believe that Pc Dan Sutherland + Pc Gavin Ross have gone above & beyond the norm in their investigation by contacting ALL the local shotgun owners. Many others on here may well have but I personally haven’t heard of that being done – to ALL of them (or going as far as to x-ray tree branches for that matter either)
Thanks for that John Turton + Coop
creatively – I don’t believe at all that LACS would have guns in the first place.
Excellent article by RPUK ive been watching the BBC programme and the police officers Dan and Gavin were absolutely meticulous in the investigation unfortunately I can’t understand these morons that think this sort of behaviour is acceptable in this day and age. And like you said all of you and John Turton hopefully another nail in the coffin of this outdated despicable backwards days of propaganda and persecution that people pay to do. As I’ve said in previous comments nature Scot and the Scottish government are the xxxxx and xxxxx of Scotland ban it along with hunting end of .
It would be interesting to know who meets the costs of the solicitor. I doubt it would be the gamekeeper, or other estate workers.
It may be one of the perks of a membership organisation. For example, the Scottish Gamekeepers Association has a solicitor who writes a regular column in the SGA quarterly rag, and he sometimes includes encouragement to call him if members have an ‘issue’ they need help with.
Scottish Land & Estates also have an in-house solicitor, as featured on their website page. No idea if these estates either are members or use that service through.
Says it all, in what other occupation do you need a solicitor before you speak to the police!