Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 6

DEER FORESTS AND GROUSE MOORS. 79
addition to which the Duchess of Sutherland appears in the list as the owner of 34,730 acres in
the conjoint counties of Ross and Cromarty. The Duke of Richmond's forests cover 59,750
acres of the county of Banff. Sir George M'Pherson Grant is proprietor of 61,090 acres in
Inverness-shire. The united forests of Her Majesty the Queen extend over an area of 22,070
acres.
A considerable number of the Scottish deer forests are let on leases to tenants ; and
according to the assessments or rental, more than sixty are in the occupation of persons other
than their owners, at rents which vary from £1000 to ,£4500 per annum. One gentleman
is understood to pay over ,£8000 a year for the extensive range of ground of which he is the
tenant. It is not possible to set down with accuracy the actual rents of the various forests,
but from a list made up and published by Mr George Malcolm, factor of Invergarry, the follow-
ing figures denote the actual or estimated annual payment made for some of the highest
rented areas, including grazing and fishing : — Ballochbuie (Balmoral), £2393 ; Invercauld,
,£2000; Mar, £4000; Blackmount, ^4500; Invermark, £2700; Ardverikie, .£3000;
Balmacaan, £3000; Ben Alder, £3000; Ceanacroc, £2470; Glenfeshie and Invereshie,
£3800; Glenstrathfarrar, £5750; Glen Quaich, £3022; Kinloch and Beneveich, £2150;
Athole, £3500 ; Auchnashellach, Coulin, etc., £2250; Applecross, £2200 ; Kinlochluichart,
£3000; Letterewe and Fisherfield, £2370; and Strathconan, £2000. Estimating these sums
of rent by the extent of acreage, it will be seen that the forest of Mar is valued at is. per acre;
Blackmount at about is. 3d. ; Glenstrathfarrar at a little over 2s. ; Ceanacroc at nearly is. 6d., —
which shows an average of about is. 6d. At this rate the rental of the deer forests in Scotland
would be a little over ,£148,000, for which nothing is obtained but the privilege of shooting
so many deer. The following estimate has been made of the number of stags which it is
calculated the forests in the counties named will yield : —
Aberdeen, .
400
Forfar,
200
Argyll,
250
Inverness,
1500
Banff,
65
Perth, .
300
Caithness, .
100
Ross and Cromarty,
1300
Dumbarton,
12
Sutherland,
250
making, in all, 4377 stags, which, if estimated at the regulation price of fifty guineas, would mean
a rental of very nearly £230,000 a year. But the price quoted includes various other items of
expenditure than the rent, large sums being expended in wages and in the exercise of hospitality,
so that, in all likelihood, a sum equal to the rent is spent every season by the tenant of a deer
forest. Various reliable figures bearing on this point were stated during the inquiry into the
condition of the crofters and cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. One gentleman
who was examined mentioned that his expenditure in a period of eighteen years amounted
to £105,000, or more than ,£5000 per annum. Sir John Ramsden had expended a total
sum of ,£180,000. 'Mr Malcolm,' says the Report, p. 92, 'gives four instances which have
come under his own observation, and which, we have reason to believe, occurred in his own
parish, where the ordinary expenditure during a period ranging from three to seventeen years
amounted in the aggregate to £121,209, ar *d for the same periods there was a special
expenditure of £65,876.' Large sums are constantly being expended in repairs and improve-
ments, greatly to the benefit of the resident population ; planting, building, and earthwork are
always being executed ; whilst there is a constant demand for ghillies and labourers, all of
whom are drawn from the crofter class, who greatly prefer such employment. ' The number of
persons permanently employed in connection with deer forests as compared with sheep farms is
about the same, the persons employed all the year round being foresters in the one case and
shepherds in the other ; and in regard to temporary or occasional employment the advantage is
in favour of deer forests ' {Report, p. 85).
With reference to the contention that the ground occupied by deer would be more
profitably devoted to the grazing of sheep, seeing that the weight of meat derived from venison
only amounts to one-fifth of the mutton displaced, it has been argued that the whole matter
resolves itself into one of rental, and that if the land brings is. 6d. per acre as a deer forest,
no proprietor could be expected to accept only half of that amount for it as a sheep walk.
This has been made a sentimental question, but as a matter of fact, it takes on an average five
acres of land in the deer-forest regions of the Highlands to graze one sheep. The sheep fed in
the four Highland counties during 1884 was as follows :
Argyll,. . . . 987,425 Ross and Cromarty, . 309,88s
Inverness, . . . 709,471 ! Sutherland, . . . 218,852
cr a total number of 2,225,536. 'The loss to the community [from the non-feeding of more
sheep] is not only insignificant, but almost inappreciable ; while, owing to the large proportion