From the edge of Borrowby Moor the views over the North Yorkshire countryside, across wooded ghylls to the North Sea beyond, are spectacular. And on a crisp December morning, with pheasants curling high off the moorland edge in a south-westerly breeze, there must be few more uplifting places to be in Northern England.

Borrowby Moor is one of the signature drives of the Newton Mulgrave shoot, which for the past three years has been run by seasoned North Yorkshire Guns Phil Bottomley and Alistair Reed.

“When our local farm shoot folded in 2005 I really missed it, so I approached local landowners, became shoot captain and got it going again on a syndicate basis,” said Bottomley. “I had shot three or four times at Newton Mulgrave and when I heard on the grapevine that the sporting lease over the estate was being offered, I approached Ali and we visited the estate on a shoot day