Celebrating the Scottish Sporting Life with Driven Pheasants at Errol Park Estate and a Rare Visit to the Workshop of McKay Brown Shotguns
A new collaboration between McKay Brown and its U.S. agent Mallards Shooting Supply & Apparel has opened the door for Americans to a luxurious Scottish adventure of driven high pheasants and a visit to the workshop of Scotland’s premier maker of best guns.
The trip includes one day of shooting at the heritage Errol Park Estate and an intimate tour of the McKay Brown workshop. Together, the venues present an authentic engagement in traditional Scottish country sporting life hosted by McKay Brown and Mallards.
The challenging 250-bird driven shoot, with pheasants up to 80 yards high, takes place at Errol Park Estate in the heart of Perthshire – home to the Heriot Maitland family since the 1800s. The house sleeps up to 20 guests in 10 luxurious bedrooms appointed with period furnishings.
The estate’s 3,000-plus acres of arable farmland, mixed woodland and game crops dates back to the 10th century, when the Hays of Errol occupied much of the Carse of Gowrie. It was gifted by King Kenneth the third of Scotland as a reward for successfully repelling a Viking invasion. The king released his hawk, declaring that wherever it alighted would mark a boundary of their land, with the foot of the hills and the river Tay as the other demarcations. Those historic borders have remained unchanged for some 1,000 years.
Complementing an exhilarating day in the field is an exclusive tour of the world-renowned McKay Brown workshop. The main facility is located at Ugie Lodge, Longside in the Aberdeenshire countryside.
Grant Buchan acquired McKay Brown in 2021, after the company’s founder, David McKay Brown, had retired. David started the boutique gunmaker in 1967 at 32 Hamilton Road, Bothwell, south of Glasgow.
David had been pressed in his later years to sell the company by people in the UK and Scotland who feared that one of the few remaining Scottish gunmakers would end up in foreign hands. But even at 80 years old, David stipulated that the new owner would have to be a Scotsman. Finally, unable to find a suitable buyer, he shuttered McKay Brown.
Enter Scotsman Grant Buchan, a master gunsmith and owner of luxury-marque Buchan Guns. He acquired McKay Brown in July 2021, allowing the gunmaker to preserve its Scottish provenance.
Grant established a new modern facility in the village of Kilmarnock, near the original McKay Brown Bothwell workshop, as a convenience for the craftsmen who had worked there (who combined have close to 150 years experience with the company).
Grant’s expertise and capital improvements let him sever ties with many of David’s outside craftsmen and bring production entirely in-house through the new capabilities of advanced CNC centers, barrel making machines and an array of other technologies that have considerably raised the standard of quality under his ownership.
Today, McKay Brown’s production as divided between its Ugie Lodge facility near Longside in Aberdeenshire and its second workshop in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire.
Ugie Lodge manages the design and engineering with its an advanced machining facility capable of producing the components required for its guns in-house. The recent acquisition of several barrel-making machines fulfilled grants dream to build guns entirely made in Scotland.
Grant’s hybrid approach remains consistent with David’s earlier philosophy of contract-machining components to a point where they could subsequently be hand-finished. For the round-action guns, this is particularly important because the finished appearance depends heavily on the subsequent hand shaping of the action.
The machined components go from Ugie Lodge to the Kilmarnock workshop. This is where the traditional gunmaking skills become particularly important, including actioning, jointing and fitting of the components. It’s the hands of man that assemble the individual pieces into a work-of-art McKay Brown.
Afterwards, the guns are returned to Ugie Lodge for stocking, regulation, engraving preparation, and final fitting and adjustment. The Turkish walnut stocks are individually selected for each customer. The stock is then painstakingly fitted to the metalwork.
The barrels are proofed at the London Proof House before final barrel blacking.
Currently, about 60 percent of McKay Browns are roundbody over/unders, with the balance side by sides. A new sidelock over/under is in the advanced stages of development. All McKay Brown shotguns are bespoke, made to a client’s individual specifications. That means McKay Brown must be selective about its U.S. agents.
In Crystal River, Florida, Mallards Shooting Supply & Apparel was opened in November 2025 by the Damron family, with Chad and his son Colby leading the charge. The Damron’s vision for Mallards was to create a destination replete with indoor shooting ranges, a full array of firearms, food, gunsmithing and a private club.
Their luxurious fine gun room, built by Julian & Sons, houses legendary marques including Fabbri, Purdey, Perazzi, Buchan, Holland & Holland, Beretta Premium along with vintage collectibles from LC Smith, Winchester and Parker Brothers (plus a selection of stunning Rigby rifles).
Grant had parted ways with fabled Griffin & Howe, his original East Coast agent, in favor of Mallards because he strongly believed that Mallards was the more visionary of a business partner in the marketing of best shotguns, emphasizing their new joint program of organizing and promoting Scottish estate driven shoots to Mallards’ clients.
It seemed to be working, because Grant had secured two trips that opening night of Mallards for their first collaborative trip to Scotland.
Chad and Colby are avid big game hunters and wingshooters. They travel to Africa and Asia for safaris.
“I named the store after my favorite thing in the world to hunt,” Chad said.
“You couldn’t find a more genuine family to support not only the sale of products but the hunting industry itself,” Grant said of the Damrons.
It was Colby who shot his first driven pheasants at Errol Park in 2025 at their inaugural shoot held October 31-November1, 2025.
“The elegance and production of it was pretty special, very traditional,” Colby said.
After guns and guests arrive in Edenborough, the entire trip is expertly managed by the hosts for lodging, meals, shooting and the McKay Brown factory tour. Gentlemen’s attire is required.
Irwin Greenstein is the Publisher of Shotgun Life. You can reach him on the Shotgun Life Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/shotgunlife#
Useful resources:
The web site for Mallards Shooting Supply & Apparel
Irwin Greenstein is Publisher of Shotgun Life. Please send your comments to letters@shotgunlife.com.
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