Millennials believe it’s legal to hunt for haggis

Muddled Millennials believe that it’s actually legal to hunt the haggis in Scotland – thinking it’s an animal.

A recent survey commissioned by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust Scottish Game Fair has revealed that a whopping 13% of Millennials believe that it’s actually legal to hunt the haggis in Scotland.

However, the figure falls substantially in other age groups with only 8% of 35 to 44-year-olds and 3% of over 55s thinking that it’s a living, breathing animal.

They will be disappointed to learn that, among all the fabulous countryside pursuits showcased at he GWCT Scottish Game Fair this summer, bagging a haggis isn’t one of the many attractions.

Visitors will be able to enjoy all things country and the countryside while checking out the amazing shopping opportunities and cooking demonstrations but sightings of Scotland’s mythical wee beastie will be in extremely short supply.

Sarah Ballantyne, GWCT Head of Events (Scotland), said: ‘Visitors of all ages are welcome at the Scottish Game Fair and while we can’t promise you’ll bag a haggis, we can promise a fantastic day out for all the family.

‘On a more serious note this survey suggests that there’s still plenty of people out there who don’t really understand where their food comes from, and the Scottish Game Fair is a great opportunity to learn more about food, game and game cookery, farming and the countryside.’

As Scotland gears up to celebrate Burns’ Night tonight (Friday, January 25), the survey threw up some other interesting discoveries. When the statistics were broken down by gender it emerged that more men (6.60%) than women (5.83%) thought haggis were real.

However, and perhaps unsurprisingly, only 2% of Scots surveyed believed you could bag a haggis, although the figure was much higher in the rest of the British Isles with a whopping 9% of Londoners and 10% of people in Northern Ireland thinking that haggis hunting is a real sport.

The GWCT Scottish Game Fair Celebrates 30 years (Photo: Sandy Young)

The North East (9.52%) and South East (9.49%) scored highly as believers, whereas the survey revealed that folk in East Anglia (2.27%), East Midlands (2.90%), and Yorkshire & Humber (2.50%) were considerably less gullible.

The GWCT Scottish Game Fair, which is organised by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), in association with NFU Mutual, returns to stunning Scone Parklands in Perthshire over the weekend of July 5-7.

With all proceeds going to fund GWCT’s chartable work in Scotland, the 2019 event will once again feature an impressive line-up of retailers and exhibitors, competitions and a revamped main ring programme. Plus, there will be a plethora of country sports activities, expert coaching, demonstrations and competitions to appeal to all ages and abilities from fishing and clays to gundogs and hill ponies.

The always popular Cookery Theatre and food hall returns alongside competitions such as the new Junior Macnab Challenge which launched with enormous popularity in 2018, giving youngsters a chance to try their hand at country sports skills, completely free of charge.

Tickets are on sale now via the website www.scottishfair.com.