These Hills Are Made for Stalkin’

On the north side of Loch Maree within Scotland’s rugged west coast lies an unspoiled Highland wilderness with mottled hills, groaning winds, and pure glassy lochs. Golden eagles soar through a vast, melancholic sky, and the mythical red stag lords over his kingdom of moss and purple heather. It’s also here that you’ll typically find the stalking set (the stealthy pursuit of deer on foot with the intention of hunting—a well-worn Scottish tradition requiring patience and skill).

A. A. Gill was often one of them. For 15 years, the late, prolific author and journalist undertook an annual pilgrimage to Letterewe Estate, escaping life’s tribulations and channeling his primal instincts by stalking the beguiling hills. And as Gill so deliciously recounts in a 2012 travel feature for GQ, Letterewe Estate is “a place that rubs its knuckles over smoky fires. From the eves, glassy, dust-lidded eyes catch the firelight and follow you with a mournful, flickering disinterest.”