Retiring gillie lands big awards

Robert Harper, a River Dee gillie with 49 years’ dedicated service, has won a prestigious double at this year’s Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) awards.

Mr Harper collected both the SGA Wild Salmon Conservation Award and the Ronnie Rose trophy for Conservation and Education at Moy Country Fair on Friday 8 August, just weeks before his retirement from Dunecht Estates.

“If you pick up the dictionary and look up the word gillie, you should really see a picture of Robert Harper,” said Edwin Third of the Dee District Salmon Fishery Board.

Starting as a 16-year-old apprentice in 1976, Mr Harper has become a formidable advocate for salmon conservation, compiling extensive evidence of seal predation on endangered Dee salmon and taking his findings directly to Holyrood.

Duncan Ferguson of the SGA Fishing Group said: “Robert’s contributions to salmon conservation deserve to be honoured in this way. If you want to see change for salmon, you’ve got to gather the evidence first. Robert has done that.”

Beyond advocacy, Mr Harper co-founded the Dee Ghillies Group, helped create the Dee Conservation Code and helped establish the ‘IntroDee’ schools programme. He also received his Long Service Medal for more than 40 years of unbroken professional service.

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