The Duke of Northumberland’s Burncastle Estate is the latest landholding to have been awarded prestigious wildlife recognition to acknowledge its outstanding conservation work.
Wildlife Estates Scotland (WES) accreditation was presented to the Northumberland estate at the Border Union Show at Kelso over the weekend.
Burncastle Estate spans more than 9,000 acres and is a mixed-use estate with integrated farming, forestry and country sports operations.
The estate and its staff are involved in a variety of different conservation projects and habitat management schemes to allow biodiversity to flourish.
For some time now, the estate has collaborated with the Butterfly Conservation Trust and, through their monitoring, recorded an increase of 20 moth species identified between 2020 and 2022.
With a total species list comprising 220 species, the long-term monitoring taking place there is crucial for understanding species resilience in the face of increasingly unpredictable weather conditions and climate change.
Recently, the South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project announced that Burncastle Estate was the first to host two new artificial eyries on its land.
It is hoped the eyries will help support the restoration of golden eagles in the region, allowing the birds to nest and raise chicks in the future.
WES is a national version of the Wildlife Estates (WE) initiative and is endorsed by the European Commission’s Directorate-General Environment, whose objective is to protect, preserve and improve the environment for present and future generations.
All types of landholdings, farms and estates can apply for accreditation and Scotland currently sits second in the league table of Wildlife Estates accredited land on 1.25 million acres, with only Spain ahead on approximately 1.6 million acres.
Between them, WES accredited landholdings have stewardship of 97 nationally protected sites (SSSI, NNR) and 79 internationally designated sites (SAC, SPA, Ramsar etc).
Craig Dickman, head gamekeeper at Burncastle Estate, said: “Burncastle is incredibly committed to enhancing wildlife and habitat to ensure that nature can flourish.
"For many years, we have been undertaking native species tree planting and drain blocking to allow for rewetting alongside moorland restoration projects and the long-term monitoring of moth species.
"The estate is gradually establishing a network of continuous woodland cover and working with others so that the challenges of land management can be addressed collaboratively.
“We’re pleased to retain Wildlife Estates Scotland accreditation as it is recognition of the best practice we are striving to follow.”
