Aulie Swires is the 2024 GWT Young Gamekeeper of the Year (Senior)

Aulie Swires is the 2024 recipient of the Gamekeepers’ Welfare Trust Young Gamekeeper of the Year (Senior) Award. The presentation was made 12 October.

Since the fifteen-year-old began walking, he's spent time with his grandfather and uncle, Des and David Coates, on Grinton Moor. Over the years he’s engaged with all aspects of running a grouse moor and the teen chooses to spend his spare time on the moors. As well as Grinton, he has widened his horizons and travelled with his grandfather to other estates learning about grouse and pheasants there.

Aulie was nominated by his grandmother Ann who told the GWT that gamekeeping is ‘in his blood’. He has the prospect of an apprenticeship on a neighbouring estate in 2025 and his family hope he will become their fourth generation gamekeeper.

The charity’s CEO Helen MJ Benson says ‘The nomination for Aulie painted a picture of a young man who, over the last decade or so, has developed a keen, practical interest in and understanding of management and conservation in our heather uplands’.

The Award, supported by Game & Country Ltd, was presented by GWT's Honorary President, Sir John Scott B,t. MFH.