Conservation and Nature Recovery on The Bolton Estate

The Bolton Estate extends from blanket bog and heather moorland on the higher ground to broadleaved woodlands, wildflower meadows, scrub, wetlands, (alongside more production focussed dairy grasslands) and the river Ure in the valley bottom.

The Estate is home to a rich array of flora and fauna, due to sensitive stewardship of these diverse habitats over many generations of owners, farmers, gamekeepers and foresters. While we are fortunate that so much has been successfully conserved here, we are determined to do more to enhance wildlife and biodiversity, and nature recovery is a central focus of our ongoing ambitions.

Approximately half of the estate is designated as Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Special Protection Area (SPA). Over a thousand acres of woodlands are predominantly hardwoods and managed in a Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) Scheme. The SSSI wildflower meadows at Wanlass Park and Thowker Corner are also in HLS. This equates to approximately 65% of the estate, which is being managed effectively for wildlife, more than double the Government’s target of ‘30 by 30’.

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Nigel, The 6th Lord Bolton, wrote this poem as a schoolboy, published in 1917, following the death of his elder brother Percy, during The First World War:

Let others live their lives in murky towns,

And glean their joys where smoky chimneys pour;

For me the rolling waste of windswept downs,

The purple blossomed garden of the moor

Where the wild sweet wail of the wheeling lapwing cry

Pierces the twilight landscape wet with dew;

Where the moor fowl, ruddy plumed, flee boldly by

Where nature’s smiles are bright, her sorrows few;

Where the ghostly redshank trills her mournful tune,

seeking the distant tarn with wandering flight;

Where the curlew sadly cries her sorrowing rune 

As, dimly seen, she cleaves the paths of night;

Where the purple bells of heather, one by one,

Shiver and close to the touch of the rising moon

There when my tasks are o’er, my labours done,

There let me rest, lulled by the winds wild tune.

This highlights the very deep and long-standing love of so many increasingly threatened birds, which over the last ten years have become a central focus of more scientific study. We have tried to harness this passion in a more scientifically useful way, bringing together gamekeepers, farmers and practical ‘working conservationists’ with Environmental and Conservation scientists and are optimistic that this collaboration is proving worthwhile.