You will probably need to visit Bolton Estate more than once to fully appreciate just how important its 12,000 acres are to the fabric and ecology of the Yorkshire Dales. Many of the more than 60,000 visitors from across the world with any number of agendas will probably know the estate best for its castle, completed for Richard II’s Lord Chancellor, Richard le Scroop, in 1399. The impressive fortress sits in Wensleydale, between the market towns of Hawes and Leyburn, and is flanked by 5,000 acres of heather moorland to the north and surrounded elsewhere by rolling fields, becks, streams and ghylls that stumble and fall their way into the River Ure to the south.

Given its varied topography, it won’t surprise you to learn this estate considers itself able to offer “world class” grouse and pheasant. The team certainly enjoyed our time when we visited the grouse moor almost a decade ago. The folks who welcomed us that day had a passion for shooting and conservation, the sense of stewardship rather than ownership having been