Gwaenynog Hall

WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES
BADGERS, FOXES AND SQUIRRELS IN A STINK PIT AT GWAENYNOG HALL. AND ILLEGALLY TRAPPED BIRDS.

Hit report 15/2/22
The Flint and Denbigh hunt met at Gwaenynog Hall in Denbigh. Gwaenynog Hall being famed for being the inspiration behind Beatrix Pottters ‘The Tale of Flopsy Bunnies’… But the cold truth is Flopsy bunnies wouldn’t survive long on this barbaric estate.

On arrival we were greeted by Sir Lord Michael Trailliar, the hunts chief smokescreen. Mike spends his mornings dragging a rag around on a piece of string trying to create a smokescreen of trail laying before leaving after an hour or two. He explained how we shouldn’t be trespassing and that we are “very naughty” before we pointed out it’s a public footpath that passes right through the meeting point. He went on to tell us how the hunt “try very hard” to trail hunt and that the hounds “will follow a trail”, but when questioned on the finer details of “trail laying” his response was mostly “erm erm erm” before a field rider called him over and said “I thought I’d rescue you”.

The hunt set off at around 11am and headed in the complete opposite direction to Michael and his rag. The huntsman attempted his first draw at Broadleys Covert but drew a
blank, before heading to Henfaes Covert and Johnson’s Wood where they spent most of the day. Again the rag draggers were seen heading in the totally opposite direction to where the hunt would go. Down in the valley of Henfaes Covert the huntsman, field riders, and terrier men spent and awfully long time riding along the pathway trying to pick up on the scent of a fox, which couldn’t have been easy considering most the Wildlife in this area has been killed by the estates gamekeepers. At one point the hunt did pick up on a fox and when into cry, the hounds giving chase out of the covert and up the steep fields towards the road. It would appear the fox had ran onto land the hunt were not allowed on as the field riders were turned back leaving the huntsman to try gather his hounds, it’s become quite a theme of this hunt to spend half the day trying to get their hounds back. For a couple of hours the hunt just went back and forth down in Henfaen Covert, we’d situated sabs on both sided of the valley in anticipation of a fox being flushed towards us. The hound did go into cry again briefly in Johnson’s Wood but it would appear they lost this fox too. With what appeared to be a very small area permitted to hunt they then headed through a field of heavily pregnant sheep causing the sheep the panic.

The hunt then finally came out the valley and back onto the Gwaenynog Hall side of the river. This area was littered with Mole traps. We’d been joined by the hunts terrier men who were trying to send back the hounds that had decided they wanted to hang out with us rather than the hunt. As the huntsman tried to draw a covert we spotted a larson trap, in the trap was a pheasant and a jay, it was obvious to us this trap was illegal, clearly no water provided nor shelter, other laws are broken here too but we’ll leave that for the gamekeeper to research for when he’s called into the police station. The birds were released, to the annoyance of the terrier men. The terrier men thought they’d get revenge and smashed up the trap to try claim sabs had! And “guaranteed” us we’d be arrested before we left the estate…. that obviously never happened. As we followed the hunt with the terrier men still shouting, we came across some gruesome scenes. A stink pit at the edge of a small wooded area with the obvious remains of some badgers, foxes and what looks like a burned squirrel. Coincidentally the terrier men who’d been following us for sometime now sulked off. Evidence was gathered and the police were called, who did call us back last night to confirm they did attend, so we await to see where the investigation goes….

Most the field riders had left by 2pm on a day which had more riders than usual being one of their “special meets” with the season almost coming to an end. The hunt had given us the slip for a while as we gathered evidence of our brutal finds. We relocated the hunt again now further towards Denbigh, but the hunt headed back onto the the main road and returned to Gwaenynog Hall to pack up.

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