from Sunday Herald, 17 April 2016
It’s a fishy tale involving a Highland laird who boasts connections to Jane Austen and the Queen, his palatial pile on the River Dee and a syrupy TV documentary that goofed.
Andrew and Nicola Bradford were lauded as an “extraordinary couple” in a programme broadcast on ITV3 last Sunday because of the way they manage Kincardine Castle and their 3,000-acre estate in Aberdeenshire.
But the programme went too far when it wrongly suggested that Andrew caught the salmon eaten by paying guests. If he had, it would have breached the River Dee’s conservation code, and could have been illegal.
Along with shooting, fishing and farming, the one-hour ‘Great Estates’ documentary described how the Bradfords entertained corporate guests to fine wine and food. According to their website, a banquet for 80 costs over £12,000.
On the broadcast Andrew Bradford told guests that his great-great-great-grand-aunt was the author of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen. He said that the Queen used to regularly visit when she was young, and staying at the royal Balmoral estate a short distance away.
But the programme commentary also said that the salmon on the menu was from the river. “In generations gone by, the task of catching the salmon would have fallen to the salaried gamekeepers,” viewers were told.
“But tonight, and on every night when such dinners are hosted, the fish is caught by Andrew himself.”
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