The estate at Ightham Mote

The Ightham Mote Estate Emily Pyle — The Ightham Mote Estate | © Emily Pyle

Discover the estate at Ightham Mote, lying within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The estate is an ancient landscape, with the farmland carved from the wood that once covered much of the Kentish Weald. Surrounding the house and garden, farmland occupies over two-thirds of the estate, with woodland making up around a third.

The Ightham Mote Estate in Autumn

Autumn can be a time for crisp clear days which offer glorious views across the Kent countryside from our estate walks. Autumn can also bring magical misty mornings and stunning sunsets.

Birds

Autumn is the perfect time to birdwatch at Ightham Mote as the leaves begin to come off the trees; an opportunity to spot goldfinch, great spotted woodpeckers, nuthatches, blue tits, great tits, blackbirds and thrushes.

Wildlife

With hedgerows and trees in early autumn full of wild fruits, nuts and seeds, many of our resident wildlife and birds will take advantage of this wild harvest to build up their reserves for migration or hibernation.

Trees, hedgerows and fungi

Our estate trees and hedgerows take on an autumn glow, especially our beeches and field maples. An abundance of blackberries, crab apples, hawthorn cherries and blackthorn provide a larder for wildlife and resident birds. Varieties of often intricate and beautiful fungi can be found in our woodland areas, but also on dead logs and at the edge of paths.

Ranger activity

From September our rangers are actively surveying trees for safety. The team and their volunteers are busy with woodland work, such as coppicing. Some of the dead wood cut away from trees is left as habitats for wildlife, such as dead wood invertebrates. Autumn and winter are our rangers' busiest times.

Autumn on the Ightham Mote Estate | © Paul Simons

Walking routes

Whether you want to stroll around the estate on one of the waymarked routes, or you fancy a more substantial trek, there are some lovely walks that explore the surrounding Kent countryside.

A two-hour walk to Wilmot Hill takes in the periphery of a large part of the 580-acre estate. The walk incorporates Scathes Wood, the Greensand Way and Broadhoath Wood. Longer walks take you out to Old Soar Manor or Oldbury Hill on a three- to four-hour round trip.

The woodland

The woodland is a very important part of the landscape here and is crucial to a diverse range of wildlife. There's always something to see in the woods, from wild flowers such as bluebells, campion and rosebay willowherb, to a variety of butterflies and birds. Spot trees like oak, sweet chestnut and beech, and keep an eye open for animals such as weasels, badgers and sika deer.

Wildlife at Ightham Mote

The estate is packed with wildlife of all shapes and sizes, from the tiny elusive dormouse to the majestic sika deer. Hedges have been planted to act as wildlife corridors, linking different areas of woodland to allow plants and animals to spread throughout the countryside.

Fallen trees are left to provide food and homes to insects, birds, mammals and fungi. See if you can spot footprints and droppings of badgers and deer, as well as the feeding signs of mice and voles.

Mote Farm

The farm is a mix of arable fields, pastures, woodland and hedgerows. We’re working alongside a tenant farmer to ensure the farm remains a viable producer of food, while enhancing standards of conservation. Some field boundaries that were lost during the war are being reinstated to provide benefits to wildlife and increase the biodiversity on the site.