Wildlife in the Garden

Within the walled garden and surrounding estate, plant species have been carefully selected in accordance with those documented by Tennyson’s contemporaries, with further planting favouring varieties and type most frequented by pollinating insects. No pesticides are used on the estate, so that it increasingly supports an abundance of wildlife through the changing seasons. 

The recently re-introduced White-tailed eagle regularly flies over the walled garden  - a haven for butterflies and bees. There is a pair of nesting Little owls, peregrine falcons are occasionally seen, and of course there is our much-loved native red squirrel; in the absence of greys the Island supports a healthy population.

Close by, are the chalk downland of Tennyson Down and Headon Warren, home to the rare Glanville Fritillary butterfly, found almost nowhere else in Britain.  

Photograph of White Tailed Eagle courtesy of Ainsley Bennet  & the  photograph of  the Glanville Fritillary courtesy of Keith Pollard.