These have wonderful provenance. As you may know, red deer numbers in Scotland need to be controlled (this wouldn’t be the case if we still had bears and wolves, but we don’t.). So we cull a set number each year. As you may know, we are game dealers, so we sell/process/cook the meat. But the skins generally go to waste. We wanted to change that, so we sent a large batch of them to our longtime friends at Billy Tannery to cure them and asked them what they might make for us.

Their response was that the cured leather is absolutely exquisite, but that due to the wild, rough and tumble life that wild red deer live the skins were very marked by the rigours of Highland life, so we would need to make something small in order to avoid the deep marking.

The result is this exquisite little key bell, inspired by the decoration so beloved of sporran makers. A beautiful thing that will last forever, made with exceptional skill by Jack and his team at Billy Tannery (who, by the way, always do exceptional work).

A classic. Maybe even an heirloom.