El Crespo

In the historic heart of La Mancha, across more than 10,000 hectares of plains, valleys and olive groves, sits one of Spain’s most highly regarded partridge Shoots. El Crespo remains a truly family run Estate: guests are welcomed to the Lodge by HRH Prince Pedro and the Borbón Dos Sicilias Landaluce family, whose hospitality has made the Estate’s name as surely as its partridges.

The Estate lies in the province of Ciudad Real, in Castilla La Mancha, a region long recognised as the home of the very best Spanish partridge shooting. The sheer scale of the ground gives El Crespo its range: vast open plains stretch out before the Lodge, while behind it lies a tapestry of rolling valleys, deep riverbeds and gullies hundreds of metres wide.

THE SHOOTING

El Crespo offers shooting from 15th September to 31st March each year, welcoming teams of up to ten Guns from across the world. A typical day runs to five carefully curated drives, hosted personally by Prince Pedro, with pre-agreed bags of 550 or more birds a day, typically taken across the classic two-day trip.

It is the terrain that does the work. The variety of the ground allows the team to show everything from classic partridge across the open plains to the fast, tall and curling birds produced by the deep riverbed gullies behind the Lodge, some of the most exciting driven partridge to be found anywhere in Spain. Every visit is tailored: a single day, the classic two-day itinerary, or up to five consecutive days for teams who cannot bring themselves to leave.

SHOOT DAY FORMAT

The rhythm of the day will feel familiar to any Gun used to a well run British shoot, delivered with Spanish warmth. On each drive, every Gun is accompanied by a personal Loader and Secretario: the Loader keeping a seamless rhythm to your double gunning, the Secretario managing your peg and keeping the tally. Between drives the Estate’s hospitality comes to the field, and the day moves at the pace the team wants it to, with the bag, the drives and the timings agreed in advance and adjusted to the party.

EL CRESPO LODGE

The Lodge, built in 1985 and sitting at the centre of the Estate, offers thirteen double bedrooms and accommodates the full shooting party. Guests are looked after by José, the Estate’s head butler, and a house team of nine, with Castilian cooking and Spanish wines at the heart of every evening. It is hospitality of the old school: generous, personal and unhurried, presided over by the family themselves.

ACCESS

The Estate is a comfortable two hours and fifteen minutes from Madrid Airport. Guests are met in arrivals by the team, with any firearms assisted through customs, and William Powell Sporting arranges the full itinerary including travel, hire guns, cartridges and permits where required.