Our work on the estate at Killerton

Tree planting

Since 2021, we've planted over 400,000 trees at Killerton. The team has expanded woodland and wood pasture across the estate, creating six new woodlands. But it's not all new woodland creation, many trees are supporting exisiting woodland and creating hedgerows. 

We've worked in partnership with the Forestry Commission and Plymouth and South Devon Community Forest. Local farmers, community groups, schools, volunteers and residents all played an active role in planting trees and shaping the future woodlands. The result is a richer, more resilient landscape that supports wildlife, enhances public access, and strengthens the relationship between nature and farming.

The Community Forest project helped to create 150 hectares of new woodland and wood pasture, an area roughly the size of 212 football pitches. These new landscapes were carefully designed to support wildlife, improve soil and water quality, and provide shade and shelter for grazing animals. Alongside tree planting, improving access and strengthening connections between local communities and the estate was a key part of the work. Over 12 kilometres of new and enhanced permissive paths have been created, helping to link nearby communities more closely to Killerton.

 

Amelia Greenway, a farmer and tenant at Springwater Farm on the Killerton Estate, said:

“As an organic farmer, we value trees integrated within our farmland. Our native breed cattle nourish themselves on the medicinal benefits the trees can provide, while providing essential habitats for wildlife. We know that trees have helped extend our grazing season for up to 16 weeks of the year, reducing our financial outputs on the farm.”

 

Black Poplar project

Black poplars are Britain's rarest and most threatened tree. Only around 7,000 black poplars remain in Britain, including just 600 female trees. Natural reproduction is extremely difficult because male and female trees must grow within 200 metres of each other, while more than 65% of surviving trees are believed to be the same male clone propagated through nurseries. As a result, wild reproduction has become almost impossible.
To help reverse this decline, Killerton worked with arborist Jamie Simpson to introduce 43 genetically unique black poplars grown from cuttings taken from the last wild population along London’s Thames Path. With only about 150 genetically distinct trees remaining nationwide, Killerton has now planted 90 distinct clones, creating the UK’s most genetically diverse black poplar population.

A dedicated clone bank enables cuttings to be shared for planting elsewhere, supporting the return of natural reproduction for the first time in around 200 years. More recently, Killerton and the National Trust’s Plant Conservation Centre have taken softwood cuttings from the now-established black poplars to grow additional trees for future planting schemes.

 

Orchards

Killerton celebrates its heritage orchards, which play an important role in supporting biodiversity and preserving a long-standing tradition of cider making. Home to 26 orchards, including seven which are newly planted, Killerton boasts more than 100 different apple varieties, some with quirky names like ‘Hangy Down,’ ‘Slack-ma-girdle’ and ‘Veitch's Wonder.’ Every year the apples are carefully hand-picked and pressed using a 200-year-old cider press to create award-winning artisan cider and apple juice.

 

Meadows

Wildflower meadows play a crucial role in our natural and cultural heritage, yet 97% have disappeared across the UK since the 1930s. The Killerton team are working hard to reverse the decline and have restored and replanted 30 ha of species-rich meadows across the estate, providing vital feeding and nesting habitats for insects, butterflies, birds, small animals and other wildlife. Thanks to this ongoing conservation work, a wide variety of native wildflowers from common orchids, Oxeye daisies, Yellow Rattle and Knapweed, to the rarer Corky-fruited Water-dropwort, are now thriving.

Killerton's formal garden and chapel grounds also have areas dedicated to wildflower meadow. These vibrant spaces provide an important habitat, helping nature thrive and supporting biodiversity. Our ranger and garden teams are working together to harvest wildflower seeds from the meadows. By collecting and reusing seed from established areas, we're helping to sustain and enrich the meadows for the future, creating more opportunities for native wildflowers, bees, butterflies and other wildlife to flourish.

 

Hedge restoration and planting

A vast 20km of hedgerow has been planted across the estate. Using the traditional rural skill of hedge-laying, the Killerton team ensure the hedges are free from gaps, remain dense in structure and stock-proof. As they mature, these hedgerows provide rich habitats and ubundant food sources for wildlife. 100,000 trees have been planted within hedges and 1000 of those are intended to be the vetran trees of the future.

 

Coppicing

Killerton’s rangers use the traditional forestry technique of coppicing, which essentially means cutting back plants and letting them regrow. This cycle increases woodland biodiversity, because it allows more light to reach the woodland floor and other species to grow. Many of these plants that grow are food sources for butterflies and other insects. These, in turn, provide food for birds, bats and mammals such as the dormouse.

Wildlife

Monitoring is vital to establish the current state of the environment and to observe changes in the future. With garden, parkland, historic buildings and ancient woodland, the vast estate at Killerton is home to creatures great and small. National Trust staff and volunteers have an active programme of monitoring on estate, especially plants, bats, birds and butterflies.  Some of these creatures, such as bats and dormice, need a little extra help being protected than others and that’s where Killerton’s team of rangers and volunteers step in. There are bat boxes and dormice boxes across the estate, which are monitored to see how well these special animals are thriving.

 

Bats

Bats are a sign of a green and healthy environment so the bats love Killerton as much as the team love the bats. Killerton is home to 13 of the UK's 18 bat species and is particularly important for lesser horseshoes, soprano pipistrelles and brown long eared. The rangers work with Devon Bat Group, led by ecologist, Dr Johanna Rabineau. Joanna's team have established several transects and completed numerous building surveys to increase our knowledge of bat populations across the estate. They are helping us to train volunteers to monitor bats, so we can understand how our habitat creation and restoration is increasing populations. Ashclyst Forest is the largest woodland on the Killerton estate and the team regularly check more than 60 bat boxes a month in Ashclyst alone. 

 

'Through the team’s monitoring we have so far recorded 13 of the UK’s 17 breeding bat species at Killerton, making the estate a hugely important site for bats in the South West’ 

- Sarah Butcher, Devon Bat Group

 

Dormice Monitoring Programme

There’s a healthy population of dormice at Killerton and the rangers are working hard to ensure that our furry neighbours can thrive. Like bats, dormice are a good indicator of a healthy woodland habitat. There are 100 dormouse nest boxes across the estate, which help the team monitor the resident dormice.

 

Surveying the boxes

The boxes are surveyed once a month between April and October when the mice are active. We’re lucky to have some lovely hazel coppice stands around the estate, which are great places to look for evidence of dormice. While surveying the boxes, rangers will check the dormice, weigh them, sex them and take photos before returning them to the box, all without waking them.

 

Improving dormice habitat

Dormice like to be high among the tree branches, rarely coming to the ground, so the team at Killerton ensure that there are connecting branches high up. This means the dormice can move around on their treetop canopies during their nocturnal activities.

The small rodents also prefer ancient woodland and hedgerows – loss of this habitat is partly the cause for their declining numbers. So, here at Killerton, we’re looking after the hedgerows and ancient woodland to protect their home. We also make sure the woodlands and hedgerows all connect, so dormice populations don’t become isolated.

Bird and butterfly population

By improving the habitat across the estate and increasing the insect population, this has had a direct effect on the insect and bird life. We’ve already seen new species ‘move in’, with the brown argus and brown hairstreak butterflies being recorded on the estate for the first time in 20 years. We’ve also seen cirl bunting, one of Britain’s rarest birds, breed in hedges alongside new areas of wood pasture, and breeding barn owl pairs have increased from just one to three. The estate team have also been working with the local community of Broadclyst to help boost and monitor the swift population too.

We're encouraging more Citizen Science monitoring projects with our local communities and we're supporting local environmental and butterfly groups with monitoring equipment for adults and children.

 

Rivers

We are restoring nature and the natural landscape in the Clyst, Culm and Cranny Brook rivers which flow through the Killerton estate, with a focus on improving habitats for the future. You can find out more here.

We've been adding brash (brash consists of cut tree tops and small-diameter branchwood) damming drainage ditches in Ashclyst forest to create ponds by allowing the water to flow onto natural floodplains. This creates wetlands in woodlands and marshy grasslands. By reintroducing ponds across the estate, we hope to encorage an influx of frogs and birds that feed from them.

 

Beavers

Beavers are a sign of a healthy river as they create, modify, and maintain habitat and ecosystems. By bringing wood into the water, the wood provides food and shelter for insects which in turn becomes food for other species. Once beavers are settled, water voles may follow. For now we will concentrate on making the environment suitable for any future inhabitants.

 

 

Supporting tenant farmers

The Killerton estate has 11 tenanted farms and the team at Killerton are working in partnership with tenants, whose knowledge and experience of the land is invaluable. We are encouraging and supporting plans for regenerative farming methods and some farm tenants have already started doing this.

 Jason and Amelia Greenway, farmers on the Killerton estate said:

 

'We strive to farm in harmony with nature. Every decision we make is based on what impact it will have on the biodiversity on the farm, our animal’s welfare, and the soil's health. When we restore wetlands, the results are often rapid, and spectacular, so our particular passion is to return water to the surface of our landscape, as ponds, clean rivers, and in floodplain woodlands.'

 

 

 

 

Opening up access to nature

The team at Killerton are working to ensure that visitors to the estate can access all areas, from multi-use paths that are suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs, to sustainable transport networks to link our communities. We are in talks with the local council to improve sustainable transport links from Cranbrook and the surrounding communities to make it easier for people to visit the Killerton estate.

The team have rolled out two-way gates throughout the historic parkland to replace inaccessible stiles and kissing gates. Made with Killerton oak, the gates are easy to use and travel through. Anyone with a mobility aid, mobility scooter or pushchair can now explore more of this nationally significant parkland.

Bird hides and boardwalks on the estate will be made in order to bring nature and people closer together. Access into Danes Wood has been improved with the removal of steps and a ramp installed. This not only benefits any wheeled mobility users but also our visitors on horseback using the bridleways.

 

 

Ranger walks and talks

Throughout the year there will be events and activities for all ages so you can find out more about our work and plans and get involved. All events can be found on our website events page

Adopt a Plot

Adopt a Plot from the National Trust is a small way you can take a big step towards bringing back nature. For a monthly donation, you can help renew Killerton, one of six nature super sites across the country. Killerton has been chosen for our potential to restore nature across whole landscapes. The nature super sites cover woodlands, peatlands, grasslands, rivers and more. By donating, you'll be helping us to restore this special place where nature can quickly recover and thrive. Nature needs space to heal itself, and you can make that space. Adopt a Plot today and you can bring back nature, one plot at a time.