Almost two years ago Protect the Wild joined a group of activists for a walk on Moscar Moor, a knackered grouse moor within a few miles (as the smoke drifts) of Sheffield (see Reclaim Our Moors Walk 2023).
In early June, with another group of activists and united under the growing ‘Reclaim Our Moors’ banner, we did it again. It was as depressing an experience as the first time…
Moscar Moor
There is more heather moorland in the Isles of Britain and Ireland than anywhere else in the world, and moorlands are (or at least should be) critically important habitats in the UK. They store vast amounts of carbon and most are allegedly Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), but while 95% of moorland habitats are covered by designated sites (mostly with the highest level of European protection) the majority are in ‘unfavourable condition’. They are parched after decades of draining and burning and demonstrably devoid of the biodiversity that should be expected of areas like these.
Moscar Moor lies within the Peak District National Park, a ‘national park’ dominated by shooting and a hot spot for raptor persecution. It has been owned since 2016 by David Manners, the Duke of Rutland, who lives at Belvoir Castle in Derbyshire, a shooting estate and home to the Belvoir Hunt (aka the ‘Duke of Rutland’s Hounds’). Manners also owns Haddon Hall, an estate featured in a piece on hares on BBC’s Springwatch in May 2025 – somewhat ironic given that in November 2020 Sheffield Hunt Saboteurs filmed the High Peak Harriers hunting hares on the Haddon Fields area of the Haddon Estate.
Moscar is perhaps the archetype of a modern grouse moor. It is a huge, trashed grouse farm (with surprisingly few grouse), burnt in to a mosiac of patches visible from miles away, littered with medicated grit trays, ringed by snares and traps, and patrolled by gamekeepers who act like local ‘hard men’ and – unless you are staying at the likes of Moscar Lodge (a renovated shooting lodge that overlooks the Moor) – eye visitors with all the warmth of a chest freezer.
Moscar’s gamekeepers have a reputation (locally and more widely) for eradicating anything on the moor that is seen as a ‘threat’ to Red Grouse. In 2017 the Hunt Investigation Team (HIT) conducted covert surveillance on Moscar which they said revealed “a systematic programme of wildlife persecution, which intentionally targeted iconic species on popular open access moorland and in the vicinity of celebrated nature reserves.”
Little has changed since then.
Where is the wildlife – Part two
On the August 2023 walk, we reported (accurately) that;
“In two hours we saw just four bird species – remarkably that didn’t include a Red Grouse, which appears to be having another bad year in the Peak District. There were no Skylarks, no Meadow Pipits, no Stonechats. No corvids of any species. A single Kestrel (a vole eater and no danger to grouse chicks) was the sole representative of the suite of raptors that an SSSi like Moscar should be blessed with.
This time around was a little different, but no better. We again saw no Red Grouse, and while there were Skylarks and a few ‘parachuting’ Meadow Pipits, we saw no birds of prey at all. A solitary Lapwing and perhaps two pairs of Curlew will be used by Moscar’s management to ‘prove’ how destroying predators benefits ‘ground-nesting birds’ (a ridiculous line in greenwashing given that grouse – and pheasants – nest on the ground and are palpably why the eradication of foxes, mustelids, corvids, and raptors is so total on grouse moors). Otherwise, the sky and land were conspicuously empty of bird life.
The dessicated soil underfoot yielded little in the way of what ought to be a hugely biodiverse flora, either. Local ecologist David ‘Botch’ Botcherby pointed out a few sprigs of Cross-leaved Heath and the odd berry, but most areas are either mown flat or burnt to the roots.
What’s the point of a grouse moor with very few grouse?
It is genuinely striking to walk a grouse moor – and see no grouse.
For the shooting industry, the entire point of a site like Moscar is to make money selling Red Grouse to its clients. Moors are typically ‘overstocked’ with 10x the numbers of grouse found on unmanaged moorland, but grouse shooting hasn’t taken place at Moscar for the last two years and may not take place in 2025.
There are numerous reasons. For one, the climate is changing: Yorkshire has become the second region in 2025 to enter drought status following the driest spring in 132 years. As is common to monocultures with little biodiversity to control infestations, grouse moors are especially susceptible to surges in invertebrates: the shooting lobby group Moorland Association quoted the Peak District Moorland Group in March this year saying that “We are witnessing a huge increase in adult heather beetle at the moment which doesn’t bode well for the health of our moorland areas.” Disease in populations of birds forced to live at unnaturally high densities is rife, and Red Grouse themselves are often hit hard by strongylosis (a parasitic infection caused by strongyle worms) with crashes occurring every few years.
Moscar’s response to low grouse numbers has been to double down on predator control (in the world of grouse shooting, a lack of grouse has to be the fault of foxes rather than environmental factors), and may perhaps widen its exploitation of pheasants and partridges: neither non-natives are reliant on heather and can be bred and released on habitats that are not optimal for grouse.
But what if there is a better alternative?
Manners hasn’t suggested that he is interested in selling a chunk of real estate that in reality he can do very little with, but what if the answer to “What’s the point of a grouse moor with very few grouse?” is to sell it to a group who could run it as a public asset. Rewilded, its ecosystems restored, it could become an outdoor space that – potentially – the hundreds of thousands of people who live in the Peak District could visit to learn about biodiversity and enjoy walking in ‘the great outdoors’.
Despite what the likes of the Moorland Association would like us to believe, moorland doesn’t have to look like it does at Moscar right now.
Reclaim Our Moors
Our walk was organised by Reclaim Our Moors, an organisation that is growing from a core of Bob Berzins, a long-time moorland monitor, author, and passionate moorland campaigner (and seen holding the ‘cheque’ in the images below); the aforementioned ecologist David Botcherby from the Merry Earth Collective; singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Robin Grey; and renowned researcher, writer and campaigner Guy Shrubsole (fresh from a stunning win on Dartmoor and whose recent book, The Lie of the Land, is a blazing take-down of elite landowners like Manners and support for community land ownership).
Reclaim Our Moors is looking to make use of new powers under the Labour Government’s forthcoming ‘Community Right to Buy’ legislation. Community groups can already seek to designate land and buildings as ‘Assets of Community Value’, subject to the approval of Sheffield City Council. Under the new laws, if designated assets come up for sale, the community group will be offered a right of first refusal to buy them.
This was explained to all of us during the walk (when a token cheque for £1 made out to the Duke of Rutland and signed ‘Sheffield’ was unveiled).
After the walk, the group held a meeting at Sheffield’s Channing Hall at which they resolved to make a bid for ownership of Moscar Moor…
That’s not as outrageous a suggestion as it might seem. There are buyout precedents. Tarras Valley Nature Reserve in Scotland is a well-known example, and more locally the campaign group Bridestones Rewilded were able to crowdfund a community-owned nature reserve near Todmorden in West Yorkshire.
The idea has support from members of Sheffield City Council and Sheffield Hallam MP Olivia Blake, a long-time critic of the moor and of the smoke that blankets Sheffield during ‘murburn’ (in 2023, after fires deliberately set by Moscar’s gamekeepers choked Sheffield the Mayor of South Yorkshire, Oliver Coppard, invited the Duke of Rutland to explain himself at a subsequent ‘Smoke Summit’ – the Duke failed to attend).
Minesh Parekh, a Labour and Co-operative Councillor for Sheffield City Council who works closely with Ms Blake, wrote a blog published on 10 June titled “How community ownership can transform Sheffield”. In it he wrote:
“12% of our city area is covered by heathland, with an additional 12% of blanket bog. Our city and surrounding landscapes could be transformed to play a key role in climate mitigation, with a little legislative nudge.
We are committed to putting our communities in charge of our city’s future. Community Right to Buy, and all moves to support community ownership of our local economy, are essential to making that ambition a reality.
This is why I and Sheffield’s other Labour and Co-operative councillors are working to embed community ownership at a local level…”
The Future
Reclaim Our Moors is very much a fledgling organisation, still thinking about how it should be constituted and run. But it is very serious about taking Moscar back for the benefit of all.
David Manners hasn’t (as far we’re aware anyway) reacted to the campaign to relieve him of Moscar, but it’s difficult to see just what (aside from bragging rights) he achieves by running down an SSSI and pissing off the residents of Sheffield most years.
Owning a grouse moor just to kill the wildlife on it is expensive and increasingly thankless. In a country with such terrible biodiversity decline (we are after all one of the most nature-depleted countries on the planet), there is growing anger at the waste of shooting dead wild birds for ‘sport’ and the scandal of vast amounts of taxpayer money paid over to landowners to subsidise their shoots. On the flip side, there really are no good arguments for the shooting industry continuing into the future.
It is very much on the retreat, while movements like Reclaim Our Moors are very much in the ascendency.
That £1 cheque may seem like a joke now, but given the way things are going for grouse shooting it may be one of the better offers that Manners receives…
This clearly is just the start of the story. We will be following it as it develops, and we will be supporting it all the way.
- Images by Charlie Moores, except for header image and photo of Bob Berzins at Channing Hall by Clive Swinsco.
