Mortonhall Caravan Park (Midlothian)

“Only 4 miles from the heart of Edinburgh, this premier park is located in acres of country estate, combining leafy green parkland with bustling city attractions.” Mortonhall Caravan & Camping Park is a key business of the Trotter family that runs Morton Hall Estate (“privately owned and commercially managed having been stewarded together by the same family for over 350 years”) under the name of Meadowhead. Henry Trotter also runs Charterhall, which has “a long history as a location for country sports.” As anyone familiar with this site will know, ‘country sports’ is the non-threatening term the shooting industry has settled on for killing millions of pheasants and partridges every year. As the Charterhall website pleads to the gun-toting tourist, “If you are interested in pigeon flighting, roe stalking, walked-up pheasant shooting or driven hare shooting please contact us.” Yes, the owner of the Caravan Park which offers ‘peace and tranquility’ also sells ‘driven’ (ie flushed and harried towards) Hares to ‘sportsmen’ to shoot. Charterhall also “lies within the country of the Berwickshire Hunt; with a number of meets occurring in the area throughout the year.” Henry Trotter’s late father, Major Alexander Trotter, was Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire from 2000-2014 and a Master of the Berwickshire: in 2016 he submitted a response to a Scottish Government review looking into a Bill that would eventually become the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act saying that “o the only way we can flush foxes out of woodland blocks is with over 20 hounds. This may sound a large number but a resting fox emits very little scent and therefor [sic] requires hounds to cover about every five square meters if they are to find a fox. In taking this action we use The Berwickshire Hunt who provide quad mounted guns along with our own keeper.”