It depends on the hill. Some estates will try to put you off but anywhere with a popular Munro will plan their shooting around the common access. So in Angus, you can do Mount Keen by following a trench all the way to the top. There may be better routes, but that main path is like a motorway and you’ll always be fine on that. It tends to be the same for all the other Munros, keep to the trade route and you’ll be OK. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check anyway and it’s more so that you should check for “oddball” hills
Start with the replacement for the Hillphones website at Heading for the Scottish Hills | Scottish Outdoor Access Code as that will give you lots of info. I’ve not found anything about the hills I’ve wanted to do at this time of year in that for the last few years. Then you have to start digging.
As I wrote earlier, because many people just ignore the fact they may stagger across shooting and stalking, the stalkers are always happy to help walkers who are trying to keep out of the way. Once you have a number for a stalker (say form hillphones) you call him and ask about a hill. If it’s not on his beat he probably knows whose beat it is on and will tell you the estate name or give you the stalker’s number. It’s a case of ringing, discussing and getting passed on to the next stalker. Repeat till you get to the right person.
Another way which has worked for me is to look at the map and look for obvious country lodges near the hills. For example Hunt Hill and Mount Keen. Looking on the map, Invermark Lodge shows up at the end of the road where you park for these two summits. Put it into Google and see what comes up. Invermark Lodge shows up on many places but the website for the Dalhousie Estate was up there. A quick shufti shows they do have stalking and grouse shooting. Is this the correct estate? I don’t know. But there’s contact info for the estate listed. So you ring them up and ask to speak to the head stalker. You then get his number and call and ask. If it’s the wrong estate ask if he knows which estate and the stalker. Repeat.
You can also search Google for stalking and Hunt Hill and see what comes up. I found some pictures from a walk a guy did and lo and behold, one picture was for a sign saying “Dalhousie Estate private bridge use at your own risk”. So that shows how useful it is to look for named lodges etc. on the maps then Google them. As that turned up Invermark Lodge which is on the Dalhousie Estate which has a website and phone number.
It took me a fair amount of persistence to do find out about these Northern hills. I had a number for an estate that went to answering machine. I left messages but nobody returned the call. More Googling “stalking Caithness” got me to a oldish looking page that had a number for a stalker. Called that and bingo…wrong stalker but he knew the stalker for my hills. I rang him, discussed my route (and I’ll stick to that route now) and his words were “Aye we’ll be out but you’ll be fine doing it that way and we’ll see you before you see us.” which was pretty cool TBH. I asked if he knew for another hill and I got the number. Rang that spoke to the stalker, wrong side of the hill but he gave me the name and number. He also said “If you can’t get in touch with him, ring me back and I’ll make sure we get something sorted for you. He’s out now so they’re stalking on his beat already.” Luckily I spoke to next stalker and he again was more than happy to arrange a route that would be OK for everyone.
It just takes a bit of effort, determination and sleuthing. And, there are 4 stalkers who know there’s at least one Sassenach who takes the responsibility that goes with open access seriously and they were all more than helpful.
Just seen your post… so Hunt Hill (one of Barry GM4TOE’s favourites) is Dalhousie Estate. I’d be surprised if Hill of Wirren (dismal place) was an issue, you can get to within 100m of the trig point on the estate tracks which are smooth enough that my silly car would have no problem. There’s lots more tracks on the ground than the OS map shows. Likewise Mount Battock has tracks to nearly the summit and a serious trench of a foot path to the final top. Only a problem if you want to go truly wild walking I suppose. Or checking on all the aircraft wrecks.