WITH big brother Nama now keeping a close eye on any signs of an extravagant lifestyle by property developers, it is hardly surprising that none of the big players have been spotted on the famed Wicklow shooting estates this winter.

Pheasant and duck shooting were particularly popular during the boom years with well-heeled developers, who in their youth would have been well used to bagging a few rabbits.

In spite of the absence of so many familiar faces this year, the owners of the shooting estates still apparently managed to fill their quota of guns for the weekly driven shoots.

A day’s shooting on most of the estates costs anything from €1,250 up to €1,800 per gun, depending on the number of birds killed. The estate owners generally charge anything from €50 to €60 per bird.

The most prestigous shooting estates in Wicklow include Ivor Fitzpatrick’s Castle Howard at the meeting of the waters near Avoca; the Bailey family’s (no relation of Mick and Tom) Ballyarthur House in the same area; Sir Robert Gough’s extensive farm at Ballinacor on the side of a Wicklow mountain and the lands adjoining Shelton Abbey, once the ancestral home of the Earls of Wicklow and now a low security jail.

The syndicate renting at the Shelton Abbey lands include the one and only Peter Bacon, whose ideas contributed to the setting up of Nama in the first place.

For the developers though, it’s less of the waxed jackets and game bag combo. Still, plenty of rabbit shooting for those who anxious not to attract attention from bean counters.