Amid the current democratic frenzy about the future status of Scotland, it has gone under the radar that a new kid may soon try to get on to the Holyrood block.

Scotland's gamekeepers and ghillies are considering fielding a "countryside" candidate to stand for the Scottish Parliament. The most recent edition of the Scottish Gamekeeper magazine confirms the idea has been discussed privately at committee level and it is likely the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) will look to other rural representative bodies for support.

None is named, but the landowners' organisation Scottish Land & Estates (SL&E), the Association of Deer Management Groups, angling bodies and NFU Scotland would all be likely candidates.

This reflects how those who work on sporting estates feel disengaged from Holyrood and established political parties. The SGA and its 5,300 members view them as predominantly urban-focused.

SGA Chairman Alex Hogg explains: "Part of the problem is the level of understanding of issues, MSPs being heavily influenced by the wealthier conservation organisations who are constantly lobbying in Edinburgh, or parties not willing to risk votes by backing policies which seem common sense to people on the ground in rural areas but may not be popular with their majority urban voter base.

He points to "government-blessed deer culls, lack of protection for globally important heather moorland and the political refusal to entertain new conservation measures to help endangered prey species".

He continues: "Unfenced forestry schemes, the lack of action to protect dwindling wild fish stocks, air gun licensing, land reform and the lack of movement on tail shortening for working dogs are further causes of contention and frustration." The inclusion of land reform on a list of largely on-the-ground practical issues is not surprising. Ministers are still considering how many of the 62 recommendations from their land reform working group to implement.

They focus on the public interest and making more of land use in Scotland. Then there is the Community Empowerment Bill and its proposal to make provision for community bodies to buy neglected and abandoned land the owner is unwilling to sell. So it's perhaps understandable that SGA wants a "voice of the countryside" as a player in these forthcoming debates, with a Highland constituency the most likely target.

Many also see this week's launch by SL&E of a charter setting standards of good practice as a pre-emptive move in this regard.

Perhaps wisely, the SGA is not talking about a new political party. That has been tried in the Highlands, with little success.

In 1998, the Highlands and Islands Alliance of Cairdeas (friendship, goodwill) was launched on Skye. It fielded candidates on the Highlands and Islands list in 1991 who were going to job share. But few voters were persuaded and Cairdeas disappeared.

Then last year the Alliance Party of Scotland was launched in Inverness, with a plan to field candidates in the 2016 to stop the spread of wind farms. But it folded in May.