Grouse moors are the true sign of wealth

If you really want to show off your wealth, sink your money into grouse moors.

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A large estate could set you back £1m a year just to run not for the faint-hearted

Grouse moors are rarer than superyachts. There are only 149 driven moors in England and about half that number in Scotland. So it's rare to find one on the market.

If you have £25m or so going begging, however, you could put in a bid for the Tulchan Estate on Speyside. It is not the most beautiful estate in Scotland, but it's easy to reach (40 miles from Inverness), and includes two grouse moors. There's also a 26-bedroom lodge plus deer stalking, pheasant, snipe and duck shooting and, perhaps most precious of all, eight miles of double-bank fishing on the River Spey.

Owning a grouse moor is a costly business: running even a small moorland estate will cost you £100,000 a year, one owner tells the FT. "For the large estates you can add a zero." And though most estates have let days (typically charging about £150 per brace, including VAT), very few make money. Employing a gamekeeper is likely to set you back £50,000-£70,000 a year, and you will need one for every 3,000 acres of moor. Then there's the SNP's hatred of landowners and the growing opposition to grouse shooting. Not a proposition for the faint-hearted.

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