A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Lots of websites offer lists of the UK’s best claygrounds. Here is the list of lists, also available as a Google map:
Set in woodland, the home of the famous gunmakers Atkin, Grant and Lang includes a gunshop with on-site gunsmith, and a ground that boasts high towers and a grouse butt. This is clay shooting for all levels of experience, specialising in sporting targets. It uses an automated Promatic system so you can pay-and-play. The kitchen serves hot and cold refreshments. You can book tuition to suit all ages, abilities and experiences, as well as corporate and team building events. You can become an AGL member, which will entitle you to benefits such as 15% off clothing and accessories, reduced rates on tuition, clays and cartridges, two free members’ shoots per year, and free gun hire.
Website: www.agl-uk.com
Atkin Grant & Lang, Windmill Rd, Markyate, St Albans, Hertfordshire AL3 8LP
Philip Young wants to hit high partridges this season, so he has a lesson with instructor Steph Davey. It’s also an opportunity to take a look at the newly-refurbished Ashcombe Adventure clay ground in Devon, now managed by local gunshop Sportsman Gun Centre.
Website: www.ashcombeadventure.co.uk/
Featured in ShootingUK top 17, York Guns top 10
You can tell often how good a clay ground is by the number of competitions it hosts. Auchterhouse is up there, with competitions including skeet and some trap disciplines. It also offers a compac layout and 12 sporting stands. You can book a lesson, a group outing or simply pay-and-play with the Promatic card system. It has a restaurant and shop, and offers a range of other country sports, from falconry and archery sessions to off-road driving and quad biking. It also has heritage: Drew Christie, whose family runs Auchterhouse, represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi and won a silver medal at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014.
Website: www.auchterhousecountrysports.co.uk
Auchterhouse Country Sports, Burnhead Farm, Auchterhouse, By Dundee, Angus DD3 0QN
Featured in ShootingUK top 17, GunsOnPegs.com top 3
Sitting below the lovely Marlborough Downs and close to Junction 15 of the M4, Barbury is run by Huw Stephens. The ground hosted the CPSA English Open Sporting Championships 2021. As well as the 100-bird sporting layout with 30 stands and two high towers, it also runs simulated days in the surrounding area. It offers tuition, practice, corporate days, and charity events. For young shots, it holds clay shooting, air rifle and archery events open to ages 10 to 16.
Website: www.barburyshootingschool.com
Barbury Shooting School, near Barbury Castle, Wroughton, Swindon, Wiltshire SN4 0QZ
Featured in ShootingUK top 17, Gunplan.co.uk top 6, York Guns top 10
Cited for ‘first rate instruction, superb grounds and welcoming clubhouse’ in recent shooting industry awards, this clay ground is located close to Bisley’s Cottesloe Heath and famous Long Siberia rifle ranges
Run by the Roupell family, it takes advantage of woodlands on Bisley Camp’s 3,000 acres of Surrey heathland around an hour from central London.
You can turn up, pay and play on the 23 stands at the Long Siberia range, or book a lesson of 100 clays. Newbies are welcome – or test yourself against one of the highest clay towers in the country plus the grouse layout. Then relax afterwards in the 1865 Victorian clubhouse that once stood on Wimbledon Common and was the headquarters to government advisors for the future of shooting. It was moved to Bisley in 1895. Events include young shots and ladies’ days.
Also at Bisley Camp, and independent of the sporting set-up, is the National Clay Shooting Centre built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Don’t get the two confused. Happily, the site is big enough to support two gunshops, one of which is Browning dealer Williams Evans.
Website: www.bisleyshooting.co.uk
Bisley Shooting Ground Ltd, The Council Club, Bisley Camp, Brookwood, Surrey GU24 0NY
Featured in ShootingUK top 17, York Guns top 10
As well as their ground at Bisley just south of London, the Roupell family has a shooting ground just south of Edinburgh. The Braidwood ground welcomes non-members, children from 10 years old (if they can hold a gun), and offers a view of the Eildon Hills while you shoot. It is Scotland’s largest clay pigeon facility, set in a Borders estate.
Lesson per 100 shots £92.
Website: www.bisleyshooting.co.uk/bisley-at-braidwood
Bisley at Braidwood, Braidwood, Midlem, Selkirk, Scottish Borders TD7 4QD
Featured in ShootingUK top 17, York Guns top 10
Established in 1980, Bywell Shooting Ground is the centre both for trapshooting and high-bird practice in the North-East of England. Handy for the A1, it offers a full-service package for the shooter, including gun-fit, coaching and a shop that’s a Browning main dealer, stocked with guns and accessories. The ground has multiple layouts including DTL, ABT, Skeet, Sportrap and English Sporting. It hosts shooting competitions including the World DTL Championship, European Championship and British & English Open Championships. It is one of only 20 grounds to be awarded Premier Plus status by the CPSA.
Website: www.bywellshootingground.co.uk
Bywell Shooting Ground, Bywell Farm, Morpeth, Northumberland NE65 9QQ
The friendly staff at this former CPSA ground/club of the year winner will help you to a variety of targets that they change regularly. CGC offers varying levels of difficulty among the stands which include training layouts along with pro sporting layouts. Tuition is available from experienced, CPSA qualified instructors. The Promatic Claymate system means you can pay-and-play across the ground. There is a café open 9am-4pm Wednesday to Saturday and 9am-3pm on Sunday.
Website: www.cambridgegunclub.co.uk
Cambridge Gun Club, Chear Fen Farm, Long Drove, (off Twenty Pence Road), Cottenham, Cambridgeshire CB24 8AH
Cluny Activities is a golfing and activity centre that has its own clay ground. It encourages membership, which comes with its own discounts and calendar of events. You can also turn up and shoot. The clay shooting range has more than 40 traps, supplied by the Clay Pigeon Company. These provide 16 sporting stands offering crossing, incoming, going-away and driven targets. plus rabbit, teal and loopers. You can shoot Olympic skeet here with voice activation, national skeet, compak sporting and DTL. Plus there are simulated game and flush shooting. As well as being one of Scotland’s largest clay grounds, Cluny Clays has an indoor hall with a 10m air-rifle range and an 18m archery range. Nearby Cluny Country Guns is a Browning main dealer.
Website: www.clunyactivities.co.uk/shooting-ranges
Cluny Activities, By Cluny, Kirkcaldy, Fife KY2 6QU
Situated on the 1,400-acre Coniston Estate near Skipton in the heart of the North Yorkshire Dales, Peter Manley and a team of experienced staff and shooting instructors run the Coniston Shooting Ground. It has a large, airy log cabin clubhouse with an open fire and, outside, more than 20 sporting layouts, along with covered Compak, DTL, and skeet stands. Coniston’s covered ABT is available with double trap and universal trench.
The ground is CPSA Premier Plus meaning it is one of the best in the UK. In the clubhouse there is a café offering home-cooked food and a shop dedicated to guns and accessories. Lessons are tailored to your experience and can include gun hire. The ground specialises in events of all kinds, from corporate to competitions. Nearby Swillington Shooting Supplies is a Browning main dealer.
Website: www.conistonshootingground.co.uk
The Coniston Shooting Ground, Coniston Cold, Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 4EA
The Dartford Clay Shooting Club is a favourite with top shot Andy Crow. You can go night shooting at Dartford; it offers a floodlit layout – but there’s much more to the club than that. For the beginner there’s a ‘Have A Go’ lesson station, which is under cover and only 10 metres from the clubhouse. The station is also totally enclosed, offering total privacy for you and your group. Dartford CSC has several professional coaches on site to give tuition. For the experienced shooter, the club has a range of shooting disciplines including skeet (English & NSSA), ABT, compak, DTL and sporting. The large clubhouse has a pool table and large screen TV, and offers hot and cold foods and drinks.
Website: www.dartfordclayshootingclub.com
Dartford Clay Shooting Club, Joyce Green Farm, Joyce Green Lane, Dartford, Kent DA1 5PN
The Bramley family have been running Doveridge Clay Sports since the early 2000s. It is a beautifully-kept 70-acre shooting ground with competition-standard facilities. Located between Stoke on Trent and Derby, off of the A50 near Uttoxeter, it offers practice and tuition. There are also corporate packages, hen & stag parties, airguns and a resident gunsmith in the shop, which is a Browning main dealer. You can even stay in the Bramleys’ holiday cottages.
Website: www.doveridgeclaysports.co.uk
Doveridge Clay Sports, Eton Hall Farm, Doveridge, Ashbourne, Derbyshire DE6 5LN
Featured in ShootingUK top 17
Dovey Valley is a hands-on shooters’ clay ground, with lessons for young shots, corporate days and even stag & hen party shoots available. Plus there’s a simulated game shoot on the Brynmelin Estate, providing enormous fun for the experienced shot.
Website: www.doveyvalley.co.uk
Dovey Valley Shooting Ground, Llanwrin, Machynlleth, Powys, Wales SY20 8QJ
Featured in ShootingUK top 17, GunsOnPegs.com top 3, York Guns top 10
Host of the 2021 CPSA World English Sporting Championships, EJ Churchill is the country house clay ground par excellence, laid out in the parkland around the Dashwood family’s West Wycombe Park. An hour west of London, facilities include more than 200 stands, 40 of them dedicated game stands with 25 different driven targets, 40 acres of woodland and six disciplines suitable for everyone from novices to expert clayshooters. It has the Claymate system, caddied rounds and lessons for experienced shots, as well as options for corporate and group events. It’s shop and café is worth a stop, too.
Website: www.ejchurchill.com
EJ Churchill Shooting Ground, Park Lane, Lane End, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire HP14 3NS
Next to Mildenhall and formerly called the Lakenheath Clay Target Centre, Eriswell Lodge is a rebranding and rebuilding of a popular clayground to an international standard, run by father and son team Nigel and Stuart Smith. Eriswell centres on a new two-storey clubhouse. The ground consists of 100 acres of countryside with four skeet fields, three DTL layouts (one of them covered), two ABT layouts, a dedicated simulated driven game area, a sportrap layout and 23 sporting stands. Four of the sporting stands are in Eriswell’s ‘training area’ offering easier targets for beginners. There are also two raised platforms on the sporting course. The ground offers tuition, group and corporate events and ladies’ days.
Website: eriswell-lodge.com
Eriswell Lodge, Brandon Road, Eriswell, Brandon, Suffolk IP27 9FB
Featured in ShootingUK top 17, former CPSA ground/club of the year winner
Voted CPSA ground of the year 2019, it’s a good looking ground that offers everything from tuition to corporate and group events, and pay-to-play with a Promatic Claymate system. You can book practice on the English sporting layout or the high tower complex. There is also a ladies’ shooting club which meets once a month, and food and refreshments are available at the Rookery Café.
Website: www.grimsthorpeshootingground.co.uk
Grimsthorpe Estate Shooting Ground, Scottlethorpe Road, Edenham, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 0LN
Built by 14 times FITASC Sporting World, European and British Champion, John Bidwell, High Lodge sits in 120 acres of woodland on the Suffolk coast. It has shooting and more, including chalets, a golf course, fishing and archery. Clay shooting facilities include skeet, DTL, compact sporting and two towers measuring 60ft and 120ft. High Lodge offers everything from complete corporate and conference packages to practice or one-to-one tuition. The ground is the home of the move-mount-shoot technique, championed by Bidwell.
Website: highlodge.co.uk
High Lodge Leisure, Haw Wood, Hinton, nr Darsham, Suffolk IP17 3QT
Featured in ShootingUK top 17, Gunplan.co.uk top 6, York Guns top 10
This is as traditional and classy as it gets. The recently multi-million-pound revamped clubhouse serves 60 acres of mown lawns in 130 acres of open countryside. Here you will find the kind of instruction you would hope for from one of gunmaking’s great names, all just 15 miles from central London. Stands include high pheasants, driven partridge and grouse butts. There is also a shooting cinema for rifle shooters.
Website: www.hollandandholland.com/shooting-grounds
Holland & Holland Shooting Grounds, Ducks Hill Road, Northwood HA6 2ST
Featured in ShootingUK top 17, Gunplan.co.uk top 6
Set up by high-bird specialist and former Team GB coach Ian Coley, the course at his eponymous ground has challenging stands, but also welcomes beginners. There is a pay-and-play practice area for shotgun licence holders. It is also a popular venue for corporate days. The ground comprises 50-acres and has 24 different stands, including three high towers as well as DTL and double trap layouts. There is also a well-stocked shop, which is a Browning main dealer.
Website: www.iancoley.co.uk
Ian Coley Sporting, near Andoversford, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire GL54 4AX
From expert shots to novices and young shots, Kibworth welcomes everyone. It offers five dedicated beginner/novice stands which, when they are unoccupied, may be used by new or rusty shooters who want to improve confidence and skills in a relaxed environment before moving on to the more demanding targets on the main sporting layout. There is an air rifle shooting school here as well as a clay shooting school. The shop is a Browning main dealer.
Website: www.kibworthshootingground.co.uk
Kibworth Shooting Ground, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire LE8 0RD
Featured in ShootingUK top 17
Serving the shooters of Bristol and Gloucestershire, this ground is set in 65 acres of woodland. Its traps include sporting targets from bolting rabbits to pheasants thrown from the 120ft high tower. It is run by Ernie Hemmings, who took over from the well-known Michael Pinker and has upgraded and improved the facilities, as well as being APSI trained. The ground offers gun fitting, clay and game shooting lessons as well as a range of corporate entertainment, hen & stag events and Christmas parties.
Website: ladyswood.co.uk
Lady’s Wood Shooting School, Mapleridge Lane, Horton, Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire BS37 6PW
A regular venue for training, the National Shooting Ground is home of Dungannon CTC and offers 100 English sporting targets over 12 stands as standard, putting it up among the top grounds in Northern Ireland. It has a grouse trailer and rents out Shotkams to improve your shooting. Ben Husthwaite trains here.
For details se the ground’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/nationalSG
National Shooting Ground, Sports Complex, 12 Tirelugan Rd, Aughnacloy BT69 6DB
Featured in York Guns top 10
Five miles outside Cheshire, North Wales’s premier ground caters for shooters of all levels. Shooting tuition ranges from a 30-minute ‘clay shooting experience’ via one-hour tuition to a range of specialist courses including time and materials tuition, multi-session tuition, safety based tuition and shotgun safety and shooting courses.
Among disciplines on offer are Olympic trap (covered), DTL, three skeet and three sporting layouts, an 80ft high tower and a low tower. Shooting layouts are wheelchair friendly and gun cleaning facilities are available. As well as clay shooting, the school has two air rifle ranges. After shooting you can relax in the pavilion building which includes Glynn’s Club House that has been the heart of the shooting ground since 1958.
Website: www.nwshootingschool.co.uk
North Wales Shooting School, Sealand Manor, Deeside, Flintshire CH5 2SB
Northall’s sporting layout is probably its biggest draw. It also offers English skeet, Olympic skeet, ABT, and two Compact areas. It has a a warm and comfortable clubhouse which serves hot and cold food and beverages all day, with a large outdoor seating are.
Northall runs a bi-weekly high gun competition with prizes. Also on site is resident gunsmith Tony Sorrel, who can service your gun. Corporate entertaining and team building packages are available too – no wonder it’s a former CPSA ground/club of the year winner.
Website: northallcpc.co.uk
Northall Clay Pigeon Club, Northall Farm, Fletching, East Sussex TN22 3SA
You can learn to shoot at Oakedge and, once you have learned, take part in one of the ground’s remarkable simulated game days. Oakedge has friendly, qualified instructors with years of experience, who can help you whether you are a complete newcomer to the sport, a competent shooter needing to practise a specific troublesome target, or if you have your eye on future competitions and really want to excel. It provides private and group lessons for ages from eight upwards.
Oakedge also runs shooting experiences, which are a general introduction to clay shooting, and last approximately 40 mins. It has dedicated training stands which allow novices to practise without the pressure of an audience. These targets are specifically designed to boost your confidence, train your eye, and hone your skills before you venture out onto the main course.
Website: www.oakedgeshootingground.co.uk
Oakedge Shooting Ground, Oakedge Park, Wolseley Bridge, Staffordshire ST17 0XS
Located in the Vale of Belvoir, Orston’s layouts consists of 20 sporting stands over 53 acres. It includes two high towers up to 100ft as well as a grouse butt, two DTL layouts, two skeet layouts, an ABT layout & sportrap layout. Gravel pathways guide you around the course and there is a clubhouse with full catering facilities and licensed bar. No wonder Orston is a former CPSA ground/club of the year winner.
The ground is available for individual practice with self-timer release Promatic Claymate clay traps. Tuition is available with friendly and qualified coaches. It’s also a venue for corporate events and stag or hen parties. It hosts local and national competitions and events throughout the year, including ladies’ days and young shots’ days. It has a gun shop and sporting agency.
Website: www.orston.com
Orston Shooting Ground, Bottesford Lane, Orston, Nottinghamshire NG13 9NX
Featured in ShootingUK top 17, York Guns top 10
One of the more remarkable clay grounds in the UK, the Oxford Gun Company ground is built around a shop that’s a Browning main dealer, and has become home to the phenomenon that is the The Schools Challenge, arguably the largest young shots programme in the UK. This is a well-loved practice ground and offers tuition and gun fitting, too. Doug, Shirley and son David Florent deliver the goods for everyone from first-timers to the more experienced clay and game shots.
Website: www.oxfordguncompany.co.uk
The Oxford Gun Company, Jericho Farm, Oxford Road, Oakley, Buckinghamshire HP18 9RG
Featured in ShootingUK top 17, Gunplan.co.uk top 6
Located between the M62 and M18, this school provides 44 acres of shooting ground centred on a smart clubhouse. The family-owned shooting school opened its doors in 2012, and offers clay shooting, skeet and sporting disciplines. Clay layouts include automated sporting stands, ABT and two of the tallest shooting towers in the North of England. The school offers lessons to all ages, as well as pay-and-play, an air rifle range, and corporate events with dining facilities. There is a shop on site, a café and even a spa.
Website: parklodgeshootingschool.co.uk
Park Lodge Shooting School, off Finnleys Lane, West Cowick, East Yorkshire DN14 9ED
Featured in York Guns top 10
Located in the Yorkshire Wolds, Raisthorpe Flyers crosses the divide between the popular simulated game days and a static clay ground. It has great terrain for both. While most clay grounds offer corporate days and/or tuition, Raisthorpe Flyers bases its offer on corporate and group days, with ‘double gun days’ and ‘syndicate days’.
It’s an inspired piece of farming diversification by the shooting-mad Medforth family who own the ground. They have been growing wheat, barley, oilseed rape and potatoes at Raisthorpe since 1969. David and Julia took over the business in the late 1980s and sons Oliver and Edward are both involved in the business.
They have a shoot on the farm and originally built the shooting lodge for the shooting season. To extend the shooting through the spring and summer months, they established simulated game shooting with Raisthorpe Flyers. And they even make their own raspberry gin.
Website: www.raisthorpeflyers.com
Raisthorpe Manor, Wharram, Malton, North Yorkshire YO17 9TF
Featured in ShootingUK top 17, GunsOnPegs.com top 3, Gunplan.co.uk top 6, York Guns top 10
Recently bought by Purdey, this 100-acre high-end shooting ground is perhaps the closest the UK has to the dream of a ‘clay ground that’s as good as a top golf course’.
Set up by the recently-retired Dylan Williams, it specialises in practice, high-end charity shoots and corporate events. The ground still has a good many manual traps in addition to more than 50 automatic traps. The pearl of its sporting layout is the grouse butts, often hailed as the best in the UK.
The ground is allied to top car showroom chain Stratstone and is home to the Stratstone Challenge, a top shooting competition. The Really Wild Clothing Company started life here and the on-site shop is a Browning main dealer.
Website: rbss.co.uk
The Royal Berkshire Shooting School, Hook End Lane, Pangbourne, Berkshire RG8 8SD
One of the great bird shoots in the east of England is also one of the greatest simulated game shoots in the country. Hollywood hard man Vinnie Jones shoots here. It is run by his old mate Dickie Clarke in lovely Cambridgeshire countryside. It’s worth being good at shooting if you want to come here, but they do sell places – you do not have to book as a group. Expect to take part in a 600-bird ‘mini’ flush. It’s a great place for a charity shoot. Prebook only. The ground also offers pay-and-play, and lessons by appointment.
Website: www.sixmilebottomshoot.co.uk
Six Mile Bottom Shoot, The Green Man, London Road, Newmarket, Suffolk CB8 0UF
Located on the edge of Exmoor, outside Taunton, this is as close as you will get to a high-bird Somerset driven pheasant day where no pheasants are shot. Indeed, it is a high-bird shoot in the winter, becoming a simulated game shoot in the summer. It is well-run and, above all, very good fun. Prebooked parties only.
See the shoot’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/SomersetDrivenClays
Somerset Driven Clay Shooting, Pitpear Farm, Pyleigh, Lydeard St Lawrence, Somerset TA4 3RA
Located in West Sussex just north of Findon, in the middle of the beautiful South Downs National Park, Southdown was established in 1984. It is now one of the largest shooting centres in the UK and a former CPSA ground/club of the year winner. It has a fully stocked gun shop and is open for practice shooting and tuition Wednesday to Saturday every week with registered competitions most Sundays. Membership is not essential.
The list of events that have been held at the club include twice holding the Sporting World Championships, the Clay Sporting Classic and the CPSA English Open twice. It has also held CPSA and BICTSF GB selection shoots, CPSA Inter-county events and regional Championships for the Sussex CPSA plus several neighbouring counties including, Hampshire, Surrey, Greater London and Kent. The competitions held at the club are generally sporting format, and it regularly holds a 100 registered sporting alongside a 100 registered sportrap, usually with a 25-bird pool shoot.
Website: southdowngunclub.co.uk
Southdown Gun Club & Shooting School, Muntham Farm, Findon, West Sussex BN14 0RQ
Shoot, shop and entertain is Sporting Targets’ mission. Set in more than 40 acres of countryside, it is one of the biggest clay clubs in the country. It offers a day out for experienced and novice shooters alike, with hospitality and even conference facilities. You can book anything from a junior taster session and young shots’ ‘birthday bang’ to more formal tuition and courses. It hosts regular competitions, including the Jack Pyke Open Sporting and its own high tower challenge. The shop here is a Browning main dealer.
Website: www.sportingtargets.co.uk
Sporting Targets, Knotting Lane, Riseley, Bedfordshire MK44 1BX
Featured in ShootingUK top 17
Located in 20 acres of landscaped grounds with spinneys of woodland, West Kent Shooting School offers more than 100 different combinations of targets from 60 automatic clay traps. The sporting layout includes a 100ft high tower. You will often find world champion George Digweed practising here. The school offers individual, couple and family memberships.
Website: westkentshooting.co.uk
West Kent Shooting School, Old Hay, off Pearsons Green Road, Paddock Wood, Brenchley, Kent TN12 7DG
Featured in ShootingUK top 17
Run by the Richmond-Watson family, West London Shooting School is the former home of the legendary instructor, the late Percy Stanbury, who is now part of the school’s logo. This is one of the clutch of western corridor grounds that serve the London market so well. Just off the M40, it has a shop and a clubhouse for tea or coffee. The ground itself offers 140 traps on 60 acres, as well as a seven-lane rifle range with running boar.
Website: www.shootingschool.co.uk
West London Shooting School, Sharvel Lane, West End Road, Northolt, Middlesex UB5 6RA
Featured in ShootingUK top 17, former CPSA ground/club of the year winner
The doyen of Midlands shooting grounds, West Midlands at Hodnet in Shropshire is centred around an impressive Scandinavian log cabin style shoot lodge. The ground has 80 stands, with more than 150 traps. The terrain is north-facing on a steep escarpment, which allows it to deliver high birds without the use of scaffolding towers. The clubhouse has a gun shop that’s a Browning main dealer, as well as a café and restaurant.
Website: wmsg.co.uk
West Midlands Shooting Ground, Hodnet, Market Drayton, Shropshire TF9 3LH
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