Land’s End Shooting Club destroyed by wildfire, appeal launched

For more than 40 years, the crack of rifle fire and the clatter of clay traps was a familiar sound on a stretch of ground near Land’s End. This month, in a matter of hours, a wildfire reduced all of it to blackened earth and twisted metal.

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Four decades of shooting history, gone in an afternoon

Land’s End Shooting Club has served the West Cornwall shooting community since 1982, giving generations of rifle and clay shooters a place to train, compete and socialise. A recent wildfire tore through the site and destroyed the clubhouse, the firing point, the backstops and virtually all of the club’s equipment.

Chairman Giane Mortimer said the loss has left the club facing a significant rebuilding effort if it is to keep providing shooting opportunities for its existing members and the younger shooters who have joined in recent years.

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No firearms on site, and nobody hurt

No firearms or ammunition were stored on site at the time of the fire, and nobody was injured. The blaze also destroyed young trees and wildlife habitat that members had planted and maintained along the edge of the range over the years, work that will need doing all over again alongside the rebuild of the club itself.

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A £5,000 target, with the real cost higher

The club is insured, but the policy will not cover the full cost of rebuilding the range and replacing what was lost. To help close that gap, LESC has launched a Crowdfunder appeal with an initial target of £5,000, a figure the club says is only a starting point against the true cost of restoring the club.

The appeal runs on a keep-what-you-raise basis, with pledges collected up until 6.03pm on 10 November 2026.

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A chance to build something better

There is one upside to starting again from nothing. The club plans to combine the clubhouse and firing point into a single building, tidy up the layout of the range and move to more modern, modular target systems, changes it hopes will benefit both long-standing members and the next generation of shooters coming through.

None of the money raised goes towards firearms or ammunition, which the appeal states clearly is not what the fundraiser is for. What the final bill comes to, once insurance has paid out and a new range has been built to the standard members are hoping for, is something LESC won’t know until the work is under way.

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