Owned by Euan ‘Bobby’ McAlpine, “Llanarmon is one of the most exclusive, high pheasant shoots in Wales. Situated in Ceiriog Valley we have some of the finest and most famous drives in the UK including Precipice Wood, Stynog, Hafod Adams, and the Pool.” Yet another chunk of shooting hyperbole to sell pheasants to the sort of people who just want to kill the maximum number of birds and are presumably happy to look the other way and ignore the fact that as Raptor Persecution UK reported David Matthews, a gamekeeper with 50 years experience, was convicted at Wrexham Magistrates Court in June 2022 “for poison offences uncovered on the McAlpine Estate in Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog where he has worked for 25 years” or that, speaking about the same crime, Niall Owen, Investigations Officer for RSPB Cymru, said “This was the worst case of illegal pesticide storage we have ever seen. We encountered an unlocked barn containing 18 highly toxic products including Cymag – a product that has been banned since 2004. Anyone could have entered the barn, with unthinkable consequences.” Nah, keep shooting, nothing to see here. Oh, if any more scrupulous pro-wildlife folk are thinking about staying in the Llanarmon area our listing of The Hand hotel may be of interest…
EDIT: We were passed information in July 2025 that an APHA cull of around 45000 Avian Flu-infected pheasants was underway on the Llanarmon estate. The virus is becoming established on shoots and risks spreading into the countryside and into domestic poultry flocks: another reason to shut down this appalling industry.
