Decades-old British tradition dies out in London as restaurants fail to deliver for annual celebration
North of the border, the only shoot taking place today is in Scotland's Lammermuir Hills
PA
A years-old British tradition is at risk of dying out as poor summer weather and luxury London diners look to have scuppered an annual culinary celebration.
August 12th - lovingly known as the "Glorious Twelfth" - is the beginning of the grouse shooting season, a time of year upon which farmers and landowners across the country, particularly the north of England, depend.
But countryside and hospitality groups have warned that a bad season could spell serious trouble - not least for small hotels and pubs which rely on a bump in customers throughout the game season.
The date can trace its origins to the Game Act 1831 in England and Wales - but GB News understands that "virtually no shooting" has been arranged for 2024's Glorious Twelfth in England.
Countryside and hospitality groups have warned that a bad season could spell serious trouble
PA
And north of the border, the only shoot taking place today is in Scotland's Lammermuir Hills - marking the first grouse shooting season under new Scottish legislation requiring a licence for shooting the birds.
The Moorland Association told GB News that the blame lay with the weather, with a "very, very wet" Spring - the tail end of a record 18 months of rainfall - damning the breeding patterns of red grouse.
And earlier, last winter was not cold enough to kill off the "bugs" which can affect the birds, the association added.
The group expressed hope that moors across the country might stage "recounts" and discover more birds than previously thought.
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A "very, very wet" spring has damned the breeding patterns of red grouse
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However, it highlighted that the species is "totally wild" - and, as its chief executive Andrew Gilruth said, "at the mercy of mother nature".
Those immediately at risk are the local people who rely on the shooting season for employment as beaters, pickers-up, flankers, loaders and caterers.
This year they will lose out on approximately £253,500 of income in the North York Moors alone, with the situation replicated across the north of England, the Moorland Association said.
It added that "any curtailment of the shooting season impacts local people, including teenagers and senior citizens, who lose not only the income but in many cases a major boost to their social life."
Restaurants near London's Smithfield Market (pictured) have been unable to keep up with the tradition
GB News
But restaurants in the capital, which have long imported and served grouse on the Glorious Twelfth itself, have been left unable to continue the tradition.
GB News approached several stalwarts within a stone's throw of Smithfield Market - another meat-based London fixture facing big changes, with the historic site set to be shifted out into a billion-pound mega-market in the East End.
St John Smithfield, which pioneered "nose-to-tail" cooking, or using up the entirety of the animal, said no grouse would be on the menu on the 12th as they "haven't been able to get any" - though it counselled that if it could, it would "get in the grouse as soon as possible".
The Jugged Hare, on the edge of the City of London, said no - while the Quality Chop House in nearby Clerkenwell is closed on a Monday, and thus will not be providing prospective grouse-eaters with their goods.
But despite the low grouse numbers this year, conservation work that is carried out on the UK's moorland to support them and a whole host of other species will continue.
The British Association for Shooting and Conservation's chairman Eoghan Cameron said: "Managing our uplands for shooting has far-reaching benefits for conservation and the fact that work carries on even in the absence of a sustainable harvest of grouse is to be celebrated."