INCH GUN CLUB & Strahack Farm
Inch Gun club was formed in 1970 and has been a strong local community focused organisation ever since.
The club has been rearing pheasants and game birds as well as undertaking predator control since its inception. Over the years it has led the way in conservation projects with the establishment of a wildfowl reserve on Strahack Farm in the early 1980’s and the voluntary implementation of limited gun stands on Inch levels nature reserve.
The club runs two annual charity clay shoots per year, but is mainly focused on wildfowling and predator control. Members of the club join neighboring clubs to undertaken Fox control throughout Inishowen peninsula during winter months.
In recent years the club has worked closely with the National Parks and Wildlife Service to manage and develop Inch Island Nature Reserve into a site of exceptional conservation and public amenity. In particular the club has been key participants in undertaking predator control and grassland habitat management for breeding waders as well as providing manpower for Greylag and Greenland white front goose ringing projects, clean ups and bird surveys undertaken at Inch levels wetland.
The club has thus developed a high level of expertise and experience in various wildfowl and game bird led conservation projects through its links with NPWS, BWI, and its umbrella organisations DGWC and the NARGC.
Strahack Farm is owned by Boyd and Bride Bryce who run the 250 acre parcel as a low intensity mixed sheep and arable farm.
The Farm has a long tradition of hosting wildfowl and conservation projects with principal projects being the establishment of a wildfowl wetland reserve in the 1980’s and the planting of approx. 50 acres of native woodland in the early 1990’s. Farm management is undertaken to ensure maximum wildlife habitat is cultivated the alongside the lamb and arable produce.
Boyd Bryce is a lifelong mixed farm manager who continues the traditions of wildfowling and game bird rearing started in the 1800’s by his ancestors at Strahack Farm. He is a qualified ringer who specialises in sea and game birds with particular interests in woodcock and storm petrels. Boyd holds a HNC in countryside management and manages by choice an extensive wetland area for wildfowl on Strahack farm.
He is chairman of Inch gun club and Inch Wildfowlers club – an amalgamation of local gun clubs come together to manage Inch levels wetland area and nature reserve in conjunction with NPWS.