The Old Berkeley Beagles Today

Laying a trail keeps hunting alive!

When the Government banned hunting, they probably calculated that we would just give up and fade away. Well we haven’t, and hunting is now more popular than it has ever been. How have we prospered? The answer is trail hunting. This, is a great challenge to the skill of the Huntsman and will  help maintain the tradition of hunting until more enlightened times return  when the ancient  sport of hunting can be resumed once more in full. Since the introduction of the ban, the Old Berkeley Beagles have, like other packs, hunted a trail.

This is what we do: before we meet for a day’s hunting, one of the whips attaches a lure soaked with a smelly concoction that attracts the hounds, to a piece of rope. He runs with this over the fields and through the woods making a trail. To add interest, apart from the whip who laid the trail, only the Huntsman knows where it is. At the beginning of the hunt, the Huntsman lays the hounds onto the trail which they follow and we follow them. The hounds will not always follow the trail, so the huntsman, by blowing his horn can encourage them back onto the right line, or if that doesn’t work, will call to one of the whips to ‘turn’ the hounds back to where they should be. We cover quite a few miles at an exhilarating and demanding  pace onto land that you wouldn’t normally go.

What better place to be on sunny winter’s afternoon than in the middle of the English countryside with a pack of hounds in full cry before you? But, if you don’t feel so energetic, then you could get to a vantage point as some of our members do and watch things taking place around you.

We normally start hunting at 12.30 and hunt through the afternoon until the light starts to fade and then we go back to a pub for a drink and a light buffet.