Tradional Spanish Partridge Shooting at its best
He may not appreciate me noting this, but it is a measure of the calibre of the man and his family… but imagine being a professional golfer, playing amongst the world’s elite, reaching a ranking of the longest driver on the European Tour in 2015. Imagine the razzmatazz that goes with that kind of life. Then injury strikes and your shoulder needs not one but a series of three surgeries and slowly you realise that competing on the world stage is unlikely to continue. To make matters worse, your beloved father suffers an unexpected, emergency illness which he survives but it too changes his life. A matter of short years later, the decision has been made to return to the family estancia to help manage the estate and shoot.
Recently Pedro Oriol found the humility to make the effort to personally pick up and host us, a bunch of lowly travel and sporting agents from the UK and USA signifying the beginning of, in part, a new life and bringing his estate Layos (pronounced Li-yos); built up, loved and cared for by his grandfather and more recently his father, to the international market. He could have had drivers do it but he showed up for us from the start.
This is no commercial shoot with a purpose-built lodge trying to be what foreigners want it to be. This is as authentic as it could ever be. The shoot was dragged kicking and screaming into the released bird world. It fought every inch of the way to continue to produce wild red-leg shooting until one day, the King of Spain commented on his departure that he could shoot a lot more in other places, places that, in reality, had made the move from wild birds to reared, a trend that few can successfully buck these days in the modern world. Pedro’s grandfather bought the estate in 1967 and built the shoot, his son, Pedro Sr, my Pedro’s father, took on the shoot and is clearly deeply committed to the art of driving partridges. He is in awe of the work his late father Miguel and others did as he explained to me how he finds it hard to improve certain drives because those before him have done such a good job. This is proper traditional Spanish partridge shooting, the kind of Spanish partridge shooting I love. As we discussed, why go to Spain to do what you can do in the UK, why not come to Spain and shoot partridges the way the Spanish have traditionally done it and… in the most beautiful surroundings.
The journey to Layos, just outside Toledo, was just over an hour from the airport if you take the toll road with zero traffic. We drove into the small town of Layos and pulled up at a large pair of gates which opened slowly to reveal the most beautiful courtyard of Layos Palace originally built in 1450…
The Palace traces its origins to a Roman settlement. During excavations of its foundations, a 4th-century marble early Christian sarcophagus decorated with biblical scenes was discovered, and it is now in the Frederic Marès Museum in Barcelona. The earliest construction of the palace dates back to the 14th century, and its main architectural development belongs to the 15th and 16th centuries. It was originally owned by Don Francisco de Rojas, Ambassador to Rome of the Catholic Monarchs, and was later inherited by the Counts of Mora, among them Eugénie de Montijo, Countess of Mora and Empress Consort of France as the wife of Napoleon III. It remained with the Counts of Mora until 1967, when it was acquired by a distant relative of that family, the architect Miguel de Oriol Ybarra (Pedro’s grandfather), and his wife Carmen Icaza Zabálburu. It is now owned by their heirs, the Oriol Icaza family. It is built in Múdejar style, with three square towers at its corners and a cylindrical tower dominating the main façade.
…the car pulls up at another pair of doors, as one pushes the big doors open the most stunning internal courtyard is revealed. Part of the courtyard is lined with tiles remembering each shooting visit made by the King of Spain, King Juan Carlos. Besides King Juan Carlos, other well-known guests include the current King Felipe VI and the King of the Netherlands. Spanish Prime Ministers such as José María Aznar have attended shoots at Layos too, although without shooting. Up the stairs is a quadrant hallway lined with family photos, old trophies, valued taxidermy of rare birds and celebrated ducks (the family are very keen wildfowlers) with another estate devoted to that a short distance away. All bedrooms, the sitting rooms, dining room etc are all off this square corridor. The rooms are all different, many have stories of who has stayed in them including the King. Some are enormous, none are small, all have ensuite bathrooms. If you are lucky, you may get one of the rooms in the towers with stunning views and/or fun bathrooms. Staying at Layos is an experience in itself!
As with any Spanish shoot, the day is very relaxed. Pedro apologised that breakfast was at the earlier time of 0830 because some of us had to leave early at the end of the day. 0830 was a luxury for me, had it been 0900 or later, I would have been wondering what to do with myself! In fact, the apologies kept on coming but for no reason at all, certainly not for the shooting being traditional Spanish partridge shooting or for his rather meagre speech at the beginning of the day. He seemed to feel we were all experienced shots so telling us what to do felt unnecessary but to a man we explained to him that a full speech is and should be welcomed by everyone because every shoot is different in how it works and clarity on where beaters and stops are, horns and whistles etc is always welcome particularly when some birds are fizzing at you like grouse.
The first two drives were return drives with a mix of classic partridge of all heights along the line and some extremely fast birds coming like grouse, all in glorious blue-sky weather before the day had warmed up. I liked the fact that a real effort was made to pick up all the birds including pickers appearing from over the hill way behind us on some drives which were not a return. Taco followed, with the usual delicacies of an ‘in the field’ break, the ham being the highlight of course accompanied by traditional Spanish omelettes and croquettes
After chatting with Pedro, we were all much clearer that shooting low in front was completely acceptable and that made everyone feel more relaxed. The birds poured over the lower numbers who had some amazing shooting. Basically, which is common sense, but you want to be sure, one can shoot the birds coming like grouse until a flag or flagman appears on the horizon and after that one needs to be judicious. I had a wonderful drive with birds coming in all directions and all heights. On the subject of grouse-like birds, they have two drives on the estate where the guns are actually in dug-in grouse butts, they must be a pretty unique experience and great fun!
The last drive was much discussed by Pedro and his father. It is pretty unique and the birds are high as they predicted. They are looking to reach out across a wider valley and some really go for it. Others, however, tuck their wings back and just glide at maximum speed at you, most are still a fair height, but they are like bullets and it take a while to judge their speed and have the brevity to take them on early. If you do not, they are gone or you have missed.
In summary we enjoyed a wonderful day of traditional Spanish partridge shooting as predicted with great variety and challenging and, for us UK guns, unusual birds. There was the usual jollity and atmosphere of a Spanish shoot with the ‘music’ of the beaters calling and laughing, mixed with the excited cries of Adelante! and Doble! from the loaders and secretarios. Where else does one shoot partridges like this?! Similar to the UK, these shoots provide vital income as well as mental and physical well-being to these country communities. We probably had over 60 people looking after us on the day between cooks, serving staff, drivers, loaders, secretarios, Keepers and beaters. We returned to the palace for a mighty lunch before departure all wishing it was a two-day shoot!
On reflection, Layos is a magical place in many ways. The palace is a real palace, and very impressive in so many ways but it does not feel big, in fact it is compact with life revolving around that one quadrant, nothing is far away. The garden is pretty and relaxing and easily accessible; one just pops out the side door of the sitting room and there is a table and chairs under the nearest tree, a long, decorative swimming pool, and at the back of the gardens, an olive grove. It felt like home very quickly and nothing is too much effort, the drive to/from the airport, the drive to the shoot (10 mins max), moving about the palace, it was all very pleasant and relaxing and I loved the trickle of water around the place and the occasional ring of the town bell. These blogs have become renown for being candid, but I really have nothing negative to say. I guess the most negative I can be is if you want mega-high partridges that you can shoot in the UK, this is not the shoot for you but if you want to experience partridge shooting in Spain, look no further.
I have to come back to the family. The affection for the recently passed grandfather who started it all with his background as an architect, piecing a stunning building back together from 1968 onwards. There is even a little chapel by the entry doors where he used to spend time. I hope it stays that way. Pedro Sr, a portrait artist of great skill but huge focus on the art of driving birds and his clear intense desire to show the birds to the best of their ability. At the end of the day, we were all delighted but the perfectionist in Pedro Sr was still muttering about this and that could have been a little better. Finally, Diego, Pedro’s younger brother by 18 months who had driven from Seville where he lives with his wife and four children to be with us and be a part of the event. None of them, Pedro, nor his Dad, or Diego were charming because they were trying to charm us, they were just a really nice family hoping that we would like what they had to offer in the humblest manner. Needless to say, we did! Truly… Life at Layos is good!
Pedro was due to play in a Madrid golf tournament on the Monday after our visit, so he is still able to play golf. I asked him if he was still able to play and do well. With a twinkle in his eye, he told me with that he had won it for the last three years! He has won 45 times on the Madrid Tour, but his most proud victories are the Rolex Trophy on the Challenge Tour and a gold medal at the European Games 2018 in Scotland, Gleneagles. He played 250 tournaments between DPWT (European Tour) and Challenge Tour.
End…