Each group kept strictly to its own hut...
For a long time I have enjoyed visiting shooting huts in the more remote areas of the High Peak. These are not to be confused with shooting butts, the smaller trench like features cut into the hillside in lines from which shooters will take aim. The huts I'm talking about are cabins big enough to accommodate upwards of 15 people for lunch and refreshment during a grouse shoot. Most of them are 19th century constructions.
Shooting huts are also symbols, maybe to become relics, of social hierarchy. In his beautiful 1975 novel "The Gamekeeper" Barry Hines includes a 50 page description of a days shoot (2022, And Other Stories). He describes a hut as follows:
"The huts had been built one at each side of the track. The gamekeepers walked straight into one of them and unloaded their tackle on the trestle tables which had been set up in a row down the middle of the room. There was a row of odd chairs along two walls and the only other fixture was an iron stove at the far end with a chimney pipe projecting through the apex of the roof."
I assume the gamekeepers weren't allowed to dwell in the hut once they had "unloaded their tackle" as Hines goes on to point out:
"One hut was for the use of the shooting party, the other for the loaders and beaters. Each group kept strictly to its own hut."
While this would have been true where there are two huts next to each other such as Ronksley Cabins in Lower Small Clough, where there is only one hut which is more common, the loaders and beaters wouldn't have had the use of a hut at all.
Shooting cabins are always in the most beautiful locations. Why wouldn't they be, they were built at a time when those that ordered their construction owned the land they occupy and had unfettered discretion on what went where. They are always next to fresh running water and often next to a spring. Harry Hut cabin on the western edge of Kinder above Glossop sits next to a wonderful spring with a primitive stone "u bend" to facilitate water collection.
The locations are also wonderful because of the views, perhaps the best being that from Oyster Clough hut at the southern end of Alport Moor which boasts views down Oyster Clough itself towards Kinder north edge in the distance.
Some cabins are in an advanced state of dilapidation and are ruins. This is the case with Cogman cabin (in Cogman Clough to the south of Abbey Brook) and Gravy Clough Cabin (in Gravy Clough to the north of Abbey Brook). These cabins are smaller than the huts previously mentioned and might have been shepherds huts rather than for shooters. They are also not easily accessible by four wheel drive tracks which would have been a detraction for shooting parties! These two cabins may never have had a roof. Gravy Clough is interesting because it utilises the side of a small crag for one of its walls.
Another cabin worth visiting is Upper North Grain at the top of Doctor's Gate. This has a turf roof which is a thing of beauty but in poor state of repair. The original cabin is likely to have had a slate roof. Interestingly the official national trust record of the hut written in 1998 states that it has a flagstone floor (https://heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk/HBSMR/MonRecord.aspx?uid=MNA112033). When I visited in 2024 it had a very boggy floor, either the flagstones have been removed or they lurk under the bog - further inspection required.....
The easiest cabin to access from the road is the cabin in Jarvis Clough. It is not an outstanding hut but is by a fast flowing fresh water source and is within a 30 minute gentle walk from Cutthroat Bridge. It’s certainly a nice sheltered spot for a picnic!
George Yates
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