Grouse Basket
Brora Heritage Centre

Grouse driving and shooting became very popular during the Victorian period, becoming an important part of the tourism industry in the Highlands.

This basket is on loan from the Dudgeon family at Crakaig Farm and Estate, to the north of Brora. It is one of a pair which would have been strapped to a hill pony for transporting shot birds back to the estate lodge. This took place on 12th August every year and was known as ‘The Glorious Twelfth’.

In 1866, the estate of Achintoul and Garnsary in Sutherland recorded the shooting of 2,237 grouse.

As the sheep-farming industry declined in Scotland due to imports of lamb and wool from Australia and New Zealand, grouse shooting offered an opportunity to diversify.