A scientific investigation into one of England’s most ambitious nature recovery projects has begun at The Rothbury Estate in Northumberland, with researchers deploying cutting-edge technology to uncover the landscape’s ecological and historical secrets.
The 9,500-acre estate, now partly owned by The Wildlife Trusts and Northumberland Wildlife Trust, is the focus of the largest landscape-scale study ever undertaken by The Wildlife Trusts. Scientists say the findings will create an unprecedented evidence base to guide future habitat restoration and measure its impact over time.
Dr Sam Turner, Professor of Archaeology at Newcastle University taking soil samples
At the heart of the research is an extensive year-round wildlife acoustic monitoring programme led by University of Oxford. Working alongside local community groups, researchers have installed 20 AudioMoth acoustic sensors across the estate to record birds, bats, insects and small mammals, to provide a true baseline before restoration begins,.
Unlike traditional surveys, which are often limited to spring and summer, the Rothbury project will monitor wildlife throughout the year, offering rare insight into seasonal shifts and the long-term effects of climate change.
Using machine learning technology, scientists will analyse the recordings to identify species and track changes in biodiversity as restoration efforts progress.
Dr Ella Browning, Postdoctoral Researcher in Ecoacoustics at the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery at, The University of Oxford said: ‘We’re incredibly excited to gain new insights into the bats, birds and other species across this very special place using year-round acoustic surveying. The study will provide a robust baseline, rarely captured, from which we can monitor changes to biodiversity over time and track the impact of nature recovery approaches. This project will allow us to listen to the soundscape in extraordinary detail and we’re looking forward to sharing the sounds of Northumberland nature so many can enjoy it.’
The estate is already home to an extraordinary range of species, including red squirrels, hares and eight of Northumberland’s nine bat species, alongside threatened birds such as cuckoo, curlew, merlin and skylark.
In a separate pioneering project, researchers from Newcastle University, University of St Andrews and Durham University are digging one-metre-deep test pits to analyse soil environmental DNA (eDNA) and use optical stimulated luminescence dating to reconstruct the estate’s ecological history.
The innovative combination of these techniques could reveal what plants and animals inhabited the landscape over the past 1,000 years, with dating accuracy narrowed to within 50 years – a first for this kind of research.
Dr Sam Turner, Professor of Archaeology, Newcastle University said: ‘The landscape of the Simonside Hills has been shaped for thousands of years through the interaction of people and nature. Our team integrates cutting-edge scientific methods to understand how natural environments have developed through time – in this case over the last 2,000 years – with results showing what past landscapes were like to help provide ideas for land management in the future.’
Beyond ecology, Rothbury’s archaeological significance stretches back thousands of years, with prehistoric burial cairns, Bronze Age mounds, Iron Age hill forts and Neolithic rock carvings scattered across the landscape.
Adding an artistic dimension to the project, musician, zoologist and field recordist Louis VI has joined the acoustic monitoring work and plans to create a future musical composition inspired by the sounds of the estate.
The wider vision for Rothbury is vast: to restore it as part of a 40-mile nature corridor stretching from Northumberland’s coast to Kielder Forest.
Photos ©The Wildlife Trusts