The Duke of Buccleuch's Hounds

Welcome to The Duke of Buccleuch’s Hounds, providing drag hunting in the fabulous Scottish Borders – cross-country riding and hound work at its best!

Come and follow our hounds as they work out the line of an artificial scent laid by runners over predetermined routes.

What We Do

Our drag hunts take place on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the season between September and March.

A ‘drag’ is an artificial scent that a runner lays before and during the day.

Our hounds are trained to follow an artificial scent – no wild animals are hunted or harmed, and our intention is to avoid them. Continuing to provide a purpose for our hounds is our paramount commitment. 

We are determined to keep the traditional feel of a day’s hunting alive. We do this by carefully pre-planning the routes for days in advance, ensuring the runner takes a natural yet carefully selected route across the country. Every day behind the Buccleuch hounds is different; scenting conditions, weather, country available and of course fitness of our runner plays a massive part.

This allows us to change the pace, our routes and the obstacles we cross to suit our followers. You do not need to be a keen jumper to keep up with hounds. There is always another route.

Drag hunting in its present form has existed for nearly 200 years to test the abilities of hounds and provide sport for riders in an ethically sustainable way.

We also hold fun rides, our point-to-point race meeting, and hunt ball, last year donating about £5000 to charities. Hunting is a social enterprise that is an important part of the rural community, without which the countryside would be a lonelier and poorer place.