More detail on trial of two Scottish gamekeepers charged with alleged shooting of Red Kites in Cairngorms National Park

The trial of two Scottish gamekeepers, accused of offences relating to the alleged shooting and killing of Red Kites in the Cairngorms National Park in February 2025, and firearms offences, continued at Aberdeen Sheriff Court this week.

Head gamekeeper Graeme Rankin, 40, and assistant gamekeeper Steven Hague, 43, both of Glenbuchat Estate, have both denied the charges.

The pair appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court for a four-day trial at the end of April 2025, after an earlier trial, scheduled for December 2025, was adjourned as the two defence lawyers, both KCs (Kings Counsel), lodged a motion suggesting the Sheriff should recuse himself from the hearing as he was an RSPB member (see here).

The four-day trial in April was extended because the court ran out of time to hear from all the witnesses. It resumed this week and evidence was heard on Monday and Tuesday.

Defence lawyers have now lodged a motion calling for the dismissal of all charges for alleged procedural irregularities. The case has been adjourned until July, when the Fiscal will respond to the defence’s motion and Sheriff Peter Hammond will decide on the outcome.

Here is a write-up of the trial hearings in April, written by court reporter Joanne Warnock of the Press & Journal, published on the PressReader website:

Two Aber­deen­shire game­keep­ers have gone on trial for allegedly shoot­ing pro­tec­ted birds of prey in Cairngorms National Park.

Glen­buchat Estate work­ers Steven Hague, 43, and Graeme Rankin, 40, deny killing red kites in Knockie Wood or else­where in Feb­ru­ary 2025.

Hague and Rankin are also facing a charge of shoot­ing a second red kite, while Hague is fur­ther charged with breach­ing the con­di­tions of a fire­arms cer­ti­fic­ate and ammuni­tion stor­age con­di­tions.

A dead red kite was found by a mem­ber of the pub­lic in the Glen­buchat area on Feb­ru­ary 26 2025 and staff from the Royal Soci­ety for the Pro­tec­tion of Birds (RSPB) atten­ded.

Fol­low­ing a series of tests, experts con­cluded the bird had been shot, prompt­ing a call to police.

One alleged shoot­ing was said to have taken place between Feb­ru­ary 1 and 26 last year within Knockie Wood, owned at the time by Rod­er­ick McGil­vary.

Mr McGil­vary, who has since died, gave a state­ment in 2025 that was read to Aber­deen Sher­iff Court, say­ing he had per­mit­ted Rankin to shoot ver­min on his land.

Wil­liam John­ston, 65, told the court he had been help­ing Mr McGil­vary look after his wood­land and installed a night-vis­ion trail cam­era at his request to watch wild­life.

Foot­age played in court showed two men, both hold­ing shot­guns, walk­ing through the woods.

As the men are seen walk­ing away from the cam­era, which is triggered by a motion sensor, a shot can be heard and they return with one car­ry­ing what appears to be a dead bird of prey.

Mr John­ston told the court he shared the foot­age to Mr McGil­vary and was able to identify both men.

Refer­ring to the foot­age, Mr John­ston said: “The man on the left using the night scope, that’s Graeme Rankin. I can tell by his stance. On the right, that’s Steven Hague.”

Mr John­ston said he had a know­ledge of weapons from his time in the Royal Engin­eers.

Under cross-exam­in­a­tion from Brian McCon­nachie KC, rep­res­ent­ing Rankin, Mr John­ston told the court he knew the men from hav­ing atten­ded shoot­ing events and from liv­ing in the same local area.

Shot­guns seized dur­ing a search of Rankin’s prop­erty on May 1 2025 were also shown in the court.

Police Scot­land fire­arms licens­ing officer Robert Stew­art, 53, told the court he could also identify Hague and Rankin from the trail cam­era foot­age.

He also poin­ted out details of one of the weapons and spoke of it hav­ing a longer magazine and an unusual hand grip.

The court heard both men held fire­arms cer­ti­fic­ates and were known to Mr Stew­art.

Rankin also held a fire­arms deal­er­ship cer­ti­fic­ate, giv­ing him the author­ity to issue rifles and ammuni­tion.

Spe­cial con­stable Michael Flach­erty, 65, told the court he could also identify Rankin from the trail cam­era foot­age, which he had viewed on a higher-res­ol­u­tion dis­play than the one in court.

Wild­life officer PC Ann Ash­man said a dead bird was dis­covered in Glen­buchat on Feb­ru­ary 26, near Easter Buchat.

Police were then con­tac­ted by Mr John­ston, who told them of his trail cam­era foot­age.

Ms Ash­man read out a state­ment from landowner Mr McGil­vary.

In it, he said he had given Rankin per­mis­sion to shoot ver­min on his land.

She told the court that dur­ing the exe­cu­tion of search war­rants at Rankin and Hague’s addresses, they had found a car­cass of a red kite, along with fire­arms, night-vis­ion scopes and hunt­ing cloth­ing.

The red kite is pro­tec­ted under the Wild­life and Coun­tryside Act.

The trial, under Sher­iff Peter Ham­mond, will con­tinue in June.

ENDS

NB: Comments are turned off as legal proceedings are still live.

UPDATE 6 August 2026: Trial collapses against two Scottish gamekeepers accused of killing Red Kites in Cairngorms National Park (here)