Timed to coincide with the start of the grouse-shooting season on the Inglorious 12th, an anti-grouse shooting protest walk will be taking place in the Peak District National Park this coming Sunday (10 August 2025).
Organised by the campaign group Reclaim Our Moors (which has already featured on this Substack – see Moscar Moor: a blight on the Peak District), the roughly 3km walk starts at the car park at Redmires Reservoir and goes up onto the Duke of Rutland’s Moscar Estate. Please be aware that there is limited parking here, so if car-sharing is an option…
The protest walk – which first took place in 2018 – will be followed by speeches, and is open to anyone who would like to join in.
While Moscar itself is trashed and pretty much devoid of wildlife (we were there in 2023 and wrote 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.”), the event itself is very positive and a great example of local people coming together to create change.
Protect the Wild’s Charlie Moores will be there again this year. In fact, Charlie has been invited to give a speech ‘by the duck pond’ and has been hard at work rehearsing what he plans to say (no spoilers, but he won’t be holding back…).
Organisers have also allowed us to record vox pops on the day for a podcast we’re aiming to edit and publish later in the week. If you see Charlie approaching with a microphone, please don’t run away! He won’t be asking for names (unless you’re happy to state who you are), just looking to collect a series of statements about why you’re there and what you hope the day will achieve.
