Placing shooting at the heart of Scotland’s living heritage

BASC Scotland has made submissions for the inclusion of Scottish wildfowling and gamekeeping in the Scottish living heritage inventory.

The submissions are part of BASC’s ongoing efforts to recognise and celebrate the positive role that shooting plays in sustaining Scotland’s identity and heritage.

Shooting is at the heart of Scotland’s culture, identity and heritage. Those involved play a key role in shaping Scottish landscapes and caring for the nature found in them. These are living traditions, a way of life that respects the past without living in it, changing and evolving as Scotland changes and evolves. A failure to recognise, celebrate and safeguard these traditions would be a denial of Scotland’s past, present and future.

Safeguarding for future generations

The living heritage inventory process being undertaken across the four UK nations follows the UK’s 2024 ratification of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. This convention commits states to take steps to protect skills, knowledge, traditions and practices that communities value, maintain and pass on.

To meet this commitment, in 2025 the UK Government launched a programme to create inventories which will record and celebrate important aspects of the UK’s living heritage and put in place measures to safeguard them for future generations. It is a devolved process, with grass roots organisations being invited to submit examples of living heritage for inclusion in separate national inventories for each of the four UK nations.

BASC Scotland’s submissions highlight the unique contribution that both wildfowling and gamekeeping have made to Scotland’s landscapes, wildlife and communities.

Unique character

The wildfowling submission reflects the unique character of Scottish wildfowling, forged over centuries of interaction between people and the country’s coastlines, estuaries, sea lochs and islands. It stresses the vital role of wildfowling in Scottish floodways and land management and highlights how knowledge and skills are passed from generation to generation through mentorship, family traditions and communities.

The nomination for Scottish gamekeeping recognises a profession and way of life deeply embedded in Scotland’s rural identity, highlighting the role gamekeeping plays in supporting biodiversity, managing habitats, sustaining rural employment and producing high-quality wild food. It also recognises the unique cultural traditions associated with Scottish gamekeeping, including specialist terminology, local knowledge, estate traditions and the transmission of skills through hands-on learning and mentoring.

Practitioner testimony, oral histories and community support are at the heart of this process. The submissions follow extensive engagement with practitioners across the country. BASC Scotland has gathered evidence through workshops, online and in person interviews and public events to ensure submissions reflect the lived experiences of those involved in these traditions.

Woven in the fabric of our communities

The move follows growing recognition across the UK that traditional country sports and land management practices represent an important part of the nation’s cultural heritage.

BASC Scotland director Peter Clark said: “These submissions recognise that Scotland’s heritage is not only to be found in museums, historic buildings and tourist attractions. It is woven into the fabric of our communities and landscapes and maintained by the people who continue to practice traditional skills, manage habitats, support biodiversity and maintain the cultural connections between communities and the land. 

“It has been a privilege to spend time with practitioners across Scotland, hearing their stories and learning about their living heritage.”

These submissions form part of BASC’s wider efforts to gain broader recognition of shooting’s cultural value, which you can read about here.

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