Grouse Moor Maps
Bespoke maps of driven grouse moors, drawn as a portrait of the hill
A grouse moor is mapped in the language of the shoot. The drives in the order they are driven, the butts, the bothies and lunch huts, the marches and old boundaries, the burns and tops and lochans, the names that appear on no Ordnance Survey sheet. Rural Maps sets it down as a portrait of the ground rather than a working document: the moor as those who shoot and keep it know it, drawn to hang in the lodge.
Anthony Pelly has mapped driven grouse moors across Scotland and the high ground of northern England. Each map is drawn from his own survey of the hill, and to the same cartographic standard as every commission.
The Grouse Moors of England and Scotland
One private commission took in the whole of British grouse country: every major moor across England and Scotland on a single vast sheet, with fifty-two historic sites threaded through them, from the neolithic to the medieval. Not one estate but the entire sweep, drawn as one. It remains the private possession of the family who commissioned it, and exists as a single piece. The knowledge it took to draw stands behind every individual moor Anthony is asked to map.
What the Map Records
Every moor is different. A grouse moor map will typically hold:
The drives, named and in the order they are driven
The butts, by line and number
The lodge, the bothies and the lunch huts
The marches and old boundaries
Burns, lochans, springs and the high tops
Hill tracks and the old paths across the ground
The named places, and what they mean, set within the print
The Hill and Its Names
The character of a moor is in its names, and they are rarely written down. The drive a family has taken for a hundred years, the butt where a particular day is remembered, the lochan that holds its name though the map has forgotten it. Walking the hill with the keeper and those who shoot it, Anthony records the lot, and a condensed account of the moor and its names is set within the framed print, so the map holds the place and its history together.
The Illustrations
Where a map carries illustrations, they are the work of the artist Jonathan Pointer, in pencil and gouache: the grouse over the heather, the gundogs, the lodge in its glen, a stag on the high ground. Each is drawn from photographs taken on the hill, to your moor and no other, and the original drawings are yours to keep.
Something Hidden
Inspired by time spent on the hill, Anthony hides small illustrations within each map: a favourite dog, a figure from the moor's history, a private detail only those who know the ground will find. He does not say what they are, or where. They stay there for the family to discover, for years to come.
Commissioning
A grouse moor is a full commission. The map is drawn from Anthony's own survey of the hill: days on the ground walking the drives, the butts and the marches, and talking to the keeper and those who shoot it. Where a moor sits within a larger sporting estate, the deer forest, the low ground and the river can be recorded alongside it. Figures are on the pricing pages.
Printing, Framing and Delivery
Every map is printed on heavyweight, archival Giclée paper by a specialist fine-art printer in London. Framing can be arranged through Derek Tanous, one of Europe's finest traditional framers, and delivery, to the lodge or anywhere else, through Momart, the fine-art shippers.
“Some of the finest bespoke maps today. They would look the part in the shoot lodges, farm office and drawing rooms or small and large properties across the world.”
“These are maps unlike any I have seen before. The level of detail is breathtaking – from the inclusion of field names and shoot drives to the painstaking positioning of individual trees, they are not just geographically accurate but also serve as a personal memoir that the family can cherish for generations to come”
Frequently Asked Questions
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Yes. A grouse moor is a full commission, drawn from Anthony's own survey: days on the hill walking the drives, the butts and the marches, and talking to the keeper and those who shoot the ground.
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Yes, the drives named and in the order they are driven, and the butts by line and number, alongside the bothies, lunch huts, marches and the named ground.
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Yes. Where the moor sits within a larger estate, the deer forest, the low ground, the river and the policies can all be recorded on the same map or across a suite of sheets.
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As a full commission, it is priced according to the size of the ground and the depth of detail. Figures are on the pricing pages.