Deer stalking and public access – Guidance on stalking communication

This guidance is aimed at:

• land managers undertaking deer stalking activities in areas popular for hillwalking and other activities covered by Scottish access rights

Introduction

Deer stalking and outdoor recreation are long established in the Scottish uplands and both are of considerable economic and social importance. These interests have much in common, including a shared commitment to Scotland’s upland environment, and usually co-exist with few problems. Local conflicts may sometimes arise if the two activities occur at the same time and place, and the key to minimising any such difficulties lies in effective communication.

Hillwalking is the main recreational activity in upland areas, particularly visiting Munros and Corbetts, though there is increasing interest in visiting in lower hills such as Fionas and Donalds. There has also been an increase in cycling activities such as mountain biking, gravel biking and bike-packing in the uplands over the last decade.

This guidance is to help land managers inform those visiting upland areas about how they can minimise disturbance to deer stalking. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, and the most appropriate approach will depend on the circumstances of each estate.

Access rights and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code

The overall context for public access to the Scottish hills is established by the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. This legislation confers rights of access to most land and inland water for recreation, education and related commercial activities. These rights depend on responsible behaviour, including respect for the privacy, safety and livelihoods of others, and land managers have corresponding responsibilities to respect access rights when managing land or water. The Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC) provides detailed guidance on these responsibilities and can be found on the SOAC website.

Part 5 of the SOAC (page 82) provides guidance relating to deer stalking on the open hill. The wording below is updated to refer to Heading for the Scottish Hills rather than Hillphones and changes to stalking seasons.  

Responsible behaviour by the public:

Deer management can take place during any month of the year. You can help to minimise disturbance by taking reasonable steps to find out where stalking is taking place (such as by using the Heading for the Scottish Hills service) and by taking account of advice on alternative routes. Avoid crossing land where stalking is taking place. Stalking does not normally take place on Sundays.

Responsible behaviour by land managers:

Be aware of where recreational use is likely, such as along paths, popular routes and ridge lines. Tell people about where stalking is taking place by using the Heading for the Scottish Hills service or by using signs and information boards (in accordance with this Code) to give on-the-day information on stalking and alternative routes.

Relevant general guidance is also provided for those exercising their access rights in paragraphs 3.22 to 3.23 (Helping land managers and others work safely and effectively) and paragraphs 3.24 to 3.28 (Access over land on which a management operation is underway), and for land managers in paragraphs 4.11 to 4.17 (Acting reasonably when asking people to avoid land management operations).

Communication plan

It is not always necessary to tell visitors about deer stalking activity, and this will depend on the intensity and overlap of the activities and the scale of any problems arising. Where communication is needed, this can be achieved in various ways, each with different strengths and weaknesses.

Signs can provide an efficient way of communicating with visitors when they set out into the hills. However, signs do not allow visitors to plan their route in advance. Careful siting is required to maximise the chance of signs being read and followed, and careful wording is needed to encourage visitors to comply with requests. For bigger estates, it might be useful to produce an annotated map or plan to identify where signs are needed, what type of signs to use and when they will be put out, updated and taken down.

Several communication methods can be used to provide information to people before their visit. These have the considerable advantage of allowing visitors to plan their route in advance, which will often take place on the previous evening, making it easier for them to accommodate your stalking plans. Some estates provide recorded phone messages for this purpose or publicise stalkers’ contact details for individual phone enquiries. Many estates have their own website and/or social media and could use these to provide daily stalking information.

The Heading for the Scottish Hills (HFTSH) web service is a key reference point for hill users and an important resource for deer stalkers. It provides general information about deer stalking for estates throughout Scotland and can provide links to other information sources for daily updates. The HFTSH web service benefits from national promotion by NatureScot, and Mountaineering Scotland promotes it to its members.

Whichever communication option(s) is used, the likelihood of success will be greatest if requests to visitors are sympathetic to their aspirations, for example by enabling them to reach the desired summit by another route. Most visitors are likely to respond positively to reasonable requests. Realistically, however, it will rarely be possible to convey your message to all potential visitors, and a minority of those who do receive it may not be able or willing to comply for various reasons including unplanned detours due to tiredness, deteriorating weather or impending darkness. Even the most exemplary communication will probably not eliminate the risk of disturbance, and the aim is to keep any disturbance within manageable levels.

When the proposed approach involves several different communication channels, it might be helpful to set this out in a written communication plan – including who has responsibility for each aspect – to ensure that each communication tool is implemented in a consistent, complementary and timely manner.

Communication principles

All communication with visitors about deer stalking should adhere to the following principles:

• Responsibility on recreation users to respect any reasonable requests to avoid particular areas. This is most likely to happen if the request is clear and is sympathetic to visitors’ aspirations.
   
• Responsibility on land managers to provide such information where needed.
   
• Requests should relate to specific days and apply to the minimum necessary area – this is more likely to encourage a positive response than a longer-term and more general message.
   
• Requests should include suggested alternative routes of a similar nature which will not interfere with stalking.

This guidance focuses primarily on the use of on-site signage and online information, but these principles can be used in other situations such as information by phone or face to face.

Communication methods

Signs

Detailed information on outdoor access signage can be found in Signage Guidance for Outdoor Access: A Guide to Good Practice, and this should be referred to for best practice on all aspects of sign planning, design, installation and maintenance.  

This following advice focuses specifically on using signs to communicate with visitors about deer stalking.

The type and design of signs can take several forms:

• Low-cost bespoke daily signs e.g. printed or hand-written, then laminated or placed in a plastic sleeve.
   
• Re-usable signs made, for example from Corex or Foamex, with key messages and blank spaces to update the location and date(s), times, etc. An example is included in Annex 2.
   
• Higher quality fixed-text signs in place all year or for the duration of the main stalking period with general advice. However, they do not fulfil the SOAC or visitors’ expectation of on-the-day information and may be less effective.

Factors to consider in the location of signs and timing of updating information:

• Provide information at key departure point(s) for routes to reach particular hills, as indicated in the Scottish Mountaineering Club guides to the Munros and Corbetts and other key hillwalking literature e.g. fixed to gates or posts at trail heads.
   
• Select locations so that visitors receive the message as soon as possible and before they have become committed to a particular route e.g. at the car park.
   
• Provide stalking information as early as possible on the day or, where circumstances permit, on the previous evening.
   
• On estates with no formal visitor infrastructure such as car parks or trailheads, consider other available quick and flexible options such as putting a sign with the daily plan on the stalkers’ parked vehicles.
   
• In mountain areas popular for multi-day trips, provide stalking information for two or three days ahead and/or at locations where visitors are likely to stay e.g. bothies. If that is not possible, an alternative would be to provide relatively permanent signs which relate to a longer period at all possible access points – perhaps in conjunction with other communication methods which allow for daily updates.

Factors to consider in the content of signs:

• On-the-day information is of more value to users, as it is clear the request is currently valid even when there is little visible evidence of stalking activity, and such requests are much more likely to encourage a positive response from visitors.
   
• The minimum area necessary will normally be the corrie(s) in which stalking is taking place, with the presumption that access can continue along adjacent ridges. If possible, the specified area should not include popular paths through glens or to major summits.
   
• Some longer paths through glens are public rights of way and walkers cannot be asked to avoid these routes.
   
• Signs which effectively prevent access to major summits (i.e. Munros or Corbetts), or make general requests to avoid high ground, are not appropriate and are unlikely to be effective.
   
• The area concerned should be clearly identified, preferably by reference to features that are marked on the OS 1:50,000 map. Do not use local names for hills or refer to beats, as these will not be widely understood. It may be helpful to include a map on the sign to illustrate the area more clearly (even if this is only a simple sketch map).
   
• Requests should include suggested alternative routes of a similar nature which will not interfere with stalking and confirmation that access to a particular hill by the most popular route is unaffected.
   
• If stalking affects the most popular route, it is very important to suggest practical alternatives that allow hillwalkers to reach these summits. These suggestions will be most effective if they start from the same location as the route that hillwalkers are being asked to avoid and are easy to comply with. Failing this, alternative routes should start from locations that are as close to this as possible.

If providing on-the-day information is not possible, factors to consider in the content of ‘fixed text’ signs:

• Encourage visitors to use other cues, such as the presence of estate vehicles at a particular place, to indicate when stalking is underway – and suggest a suitable alternative route under these circumstances.
   
• Provide general guidance encouraging visitors to make informed decisions e.g. “when stalking is taking place, you can help by using paths, following ridges and following the main watercourse if you have to go through a corrie.”
   
• Highlight routes to the summits which are never affected by stalking, using a wording of the general form “The route to Ben X from Y is always OK”. It’s usually best to refer to the most popular routes, as most visitors will tend to use these routes anyway and stalkers may already be accustomed to working around this pattern of access.
   
• Provide as much detail as possible e.g. date when the main stalking period begins and ends; note any days of the week on which stalking does not take place.
   
• Do not make blanket requests to avoid specified areas which remain in place when no stalking is underway.

Other tips for effective communication:

• All signs should request co-operation using polite, friendly and reasonable language. A directive or officious tone will almost certainly be counterproductive. Signs should not discourage access by implying a hazard to hillwalkers, as responsibility for the safe use of firearms rests with the stalker.
   
• The inclusion of estate contact details can help to make signs more welcoming, more accountable and less impersonal. However, this information will rarely be particularly useful for encouraging discussion of stalking plans on the day, in part because mobile phone networks are not available in some glens.
   
• If you provide an estate phone number to encourage direct dialogue from hill users, ensure it is the most appropriate contact to advise on daily stalking activities – and possibly also specify a time window when calls will be convenient. A better approach may be to leave a recorded message, and to indicate this on the sign.
   
• More concise signs are more likely to be read, so keep the text as short as possible. Annex 2 provides suggested wording for signs which relate to specific days or apply for longer periods.

Websites

Estate websites

Many estates have their own websites which can provide an effective way to communicate with visitors about stalking, and a particularly easy way to provide more detailed day to day information in line with the SOAC. The key weakness of this approach is that hillwalkers will rarely know the name of the relevant estate and may therefore have difficulty finding this information using online searches. The Heading for the Scottish Hills web service can help overcome this problem by including a link to the relevant page on your website, thus increasing the likelihood that hill users find the relevant stalking information.

As with signs, it is preferable to provide information which relates to specific days, but if this is not possible a pragmatic alternative would be to use a longer-term message. The sign templates in Annex 2 provide suitable wording which could be used for messages of either type.

Heading for the Scottish Hills (HFTSH)

The Heading for the Scottish Hills web service is located on the Outdoor Access Scotland website and managed by NatureScot. It provides concise general information about stalking on estates which contains Munros, Corbetts or other popular hills.  Messages can include the approximate duration of stalking activity, days of the week when stalking does not take place and routes to the summits which are “always OK”.

Hill users can also be signposted via HFTSH to other information sources, including local signs, recorded messages, estates’ own websites or stalkers’ phone numbers, for more specific daily updates. Providing a stalker’s phone number on HFTSH shares some of the shortcomings of providing phone numbers on signs and is a relatively poor substitute for more proactive ways of providing daily stalking information.

Further details about HFTSH are provided in How to join Heading for the Scottish Hills – information for land managers. If you would like your estate to be included in HFTSH or have any queries, please email [email protected].

Other websites

Mountaineering Scotland has a Deer stalking and hill access web page informing hillwalkers, climbers and ski tourers about why and when deer are culled and how to minimise disturbance, with a link to the HFTSH web page.

Walkhighlands is a popular website for walkers, which provides deer stalking information based on that used in the HFTSH web service e.g. Beinn Dearg, Perthshire:

DEER STALKING INFORMATION

Atholl Estates. Stag stalking from beginning of Aug to 20 Oct with no stalking on Sundays. Hind stalking from 21 Oct to 15 Feb with no stalking at weekends. Recorded phone message: 01796 481740. If further information is needed, please e-mail [email protected] at least a couple of days in advance or phone 01796 481355 (office hours only).

Press releases and social media

The National Access Forum developed upland deer management and access communication messages to guide national level public-facing communications, which were endorsed at their 7 June 2023 meeting. These messages are included in Annex 3.

NatureScot issues an annual press release to promote the HFTSH web service e.g. Visitors to Scotland's hills urged to head online for deer stalking information (20 September 2023). This is picked up and used by newspapers, such as The Herald and the Strathspey & Badenoch Herald, and included in the news section of the Walkhighlands website.

NatureScot also promotes HFTSH via our social media channels, and other organisations or individuals share these or use similar posts.

Mountaineering Scotland includes an article promoting the HFTSH web service in the autumn edition of its magazine. The August 2024 edition of Mountain Matters, Mountaineering Scotland members’ digital magazine, included a video produced by the ADMG about deer stalking and access.

The Association of Deer Management Groups (ADMG) reminds deer managers about ensuring that information on the HFTSH website is kept up to date via reports to members e.g. ADMG Report Autumn 2023.

Annex 1. Key web links

Heading for the Scottish Hills – online information about deer stalking activities to help people plan hill routes that avoid disturbing stalking.

How to join Heading for the Scottish Hills – information for land managers

Signage Guidance for Outdoor Access: A Guide to Good Practice - Walking Scotland guidance covering all aspects of outdoor access signage.

Outdoor Access Scotland website:  

• Scottish Outdoor Access Code – documents to download in full or part
• Deer management and access – practical guide for those visiting Scotland’s hills
• Signs - general guidance on signs for land management and other purposes
• Sign template downloads – for common situations e.g. land management operations

Mountaineering Scotland - deer stalking and hill access

Deer stalking and public access video – produced by the Association of Deer Management Groups (ADMG) and included in Mountaineering Scotland’s digital magazine August 2024.

Scottish Hill Tracks – Scotways publication describing routes that walkers, cyclists, riders and runners can use to explore the paths, old roads and rights of way across Scotland’s hill country.

Walkhighlands – a popular website for walkers, which provides deer stalking information based on that used in the HFTSH web service.

Annex 2: Sign templates

Some examples of appropriate wording are provided below. Circumstances vary considerably between estates and no one form of words will necessarily suit all situations.

Signs relating to specific days

Welcome to XXX Estate.

Deer stalking will be taking place on [box to insert date] in the following area: [box to insert area]
OR
When today’s date is indicated in this box [box to insert date] deer stalking 
will be taking place in the following corrie(s): [box to insert area].

Taking the following route will help to minimise disturbance [box to insert suggested route].
OR
Taking the following route(s) to Beinn X, Y and Z will help to minimise disturbance [box to insert suggested route(s)].

Thank you for your co-operation.

[Add contact details]

Longer-term signs

Welcome to XXX.

Deer stalking takes place on this estate to keep deer numbers in balance with 
the upland environment and for economic benefits.

Stalking will be taking place on some days between [insert start date] and 
[insert end date] in [indicate general area(s)].

 When stalking is taking place, you can help by:
- using paths;
- following ridges, and;
- following the main watercourse if you have to go through a corrie.

There is no stalking on Sundays.

Thank you for your co-operation.

[Add contact details]

SOAC sign templates

The Outdoor Access Scotland website has sign templates for various land management and other situations available to download, including sign template - shooting.

Annex 3. Upland deer management and access communication messages

Key overarching message

Managing the number of deer and their environmental impact is vital if we are to effectively tackle the nature loss and climate crisis facing Scotland. Deer stalking can take place all year round. You can help by minimising disturbance to stalking, especially during key busier periods in the autumn (particularly the first 3 weeks of October) and winter (late January to mid-February). Please use the Heading for the Scottish Hills website and other information sources to help plan your routes all year.

Why manage deer?

Globally and in Scotland, nature is in decline and we face a climate emergency. Deer are an iconic species but their high numbers in some areas and lack of natural predators mean that they can harm upland habitats through browsing, grazing and trampling. The sustainable management of Scotland’s deer including, in places, a significant reduction, is vital to protect and restore biodiversity and tackle nature loss.

Stalking (tracking deer to shoot and kill them humanely) and fencing are the main deer management methods currently used in Scotland. Stalking keeps deer numbers in balance with the environment and enables the natural regeneration of trees, shrubs and other vegetation. This, in turn, impacts positively on the amount of carbon absorbed from the atmosphere and carbon lost through areas of damaged peat. It also contributes to the welfare of the deer, as any suffering from disease, malnourishment and injury can be culled humanely. In the absence of natural predation, it falls to people to manage the growing deer populations with care, with respect and using the latest scientific knowledge and research.

Why do we need your help?

The twin climate and nature crises give greater urgency to efforts to reduce deer numbers; to achieve this Scottish Government policy is that more deer must be culled to reduce their environmental impacts and to aid nature recovery. The uplands are a much-loved destination for anyone wanting to experience Scotland’s great outdoors and the number of people heading to some of our most popular hills has increased in recent years. Activities such as hill walking also increase the likelihood that we accidentally disturb essential deer culling. Most people are unaware that they are causing issues for stalkers but deer are alert to human activity from a great distance, so it is often impossible to tell when our presence has unsettled deer, or moved them away from areas where stalking is taking place making it more difficult, or impossible, to cull deer in that area on that day.

Many land managers provide information about where stalking is taking place on the Heading for the Scottish Hills service. This website is an important source of information that helps anyone heading outdoors into the hills to plan routes that minimise the chance of disturbing stalking, in line with the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.

By taking simple steps to avoid deer disturbance, such as finding out where deer stalking is happening and following requests to use alternative routes, you can play an important role in the nature recovery of our uplands, fighting climate change, increasing biodiversity and helping rural businesses and communities.

When does stalking take place?

Red deer stag (male) stalking can take place all year round, with increasing activity from August to mid-October. Red deer hind (female) stalking takes place from the 21st of October to the 15th of February.  

The busiest stalking periods are influenced by the natural seasonal breeding cycle and movements of red deer, as well as welfare considerations.

Accordingly, the first three weeks of October and the period towards the end of the hind season (late January to mid-February) are key times of the year when deer managers are working hard to reduce deer numbers and achieve their cull targets.

What actions can you take to help?

Throughout the year:

• Plan ahead - use the Heading for the Scottish Hills service (and other information sources such as Walkhighlands and some estate websites) to help you find out where stalking is taking place. Fewer routes will be affected by stalking on Saturdays, and stalking does not usually take place on Sundays.
• Plan and follow a route that avoids crossing land where deer management is taking place.
• Pay close attention to signage on arrival and throughout your visit, and follow reasonable advice from land managers on alternative routes.
• Be flexible - be prepared to adjust your plans to take a different route if necessary.
• If there isn’t any specific information available for your route, you can minimise the risk of disturbing stalking activity by using paths and following ridges.

During the busier key deer stalking periods in the autumn (especially the first 3 weeks of October) and winter (late January to mid-February), you should be prepared for more stalking activity to be taking place in the hills during the working week (Monday to Friday) and that you are more likely to be asked to use alternative routes. The hills are still accessible during this period, but it is essential that you plan ahead carefully and take extra care to minimise the chance of disturbing stalking.

In addition to the ‘throughout the year’ advice:

• Pay careful attention to the advice provided by land managers - follow any reasonable requests to avoid particular areas.
• Be prepared to consider and plan an alternative destination if there is stalking activity affecting a route to a summit
• Stay flexible – have a back-up plan (with additional maps if necessary) so you can change your plan, location or route on the day.

Publication information

3rd edition June 2025 (1st edition 2009, 2nd edition 2016). To be reviewed by June 2028.
Produced by NatureScot and approved by the National Access Forum.