{"id":526481,"date":"2026-04-12T07:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T07:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/526481\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T07:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T07:34:09","slug":"yorkshire-dales-red-squirrel-reserve-for-sale-after-owners-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/526481\/","title":{"rendered":"Yorkshire Dales red squirrel reserve for sale after owners’ deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red squirrels are mostly found in Northumberland and Cumbria, and there are thought to be less than 40,000 left in the country, according to Forestry England’s squirrel policy advisor.<\/p>\n

The endangered species’ biggest threat is the grey squirrel which carries – but is not affected by – a pox that causes red squirrels to die. <\/p>\n

The Mirk Pot squirrels have thrived and are now seen in gardens in nearby Hawes and Bainbridge, and in 2025 a new colony was identified in a sitka spruce plantation<\/a> in an undisclosed location nearby, which the landowners agreed to support.<\/p>\n

Magnus and his brother have inherited the woods as well as the farmhouse where they grew up. Much of the surrounding land is still managed for commercial forestry, but the squirrel refuge his parents built is tranquil and undisturbed.<\/p>\n

“My mother was a massive naturalist. For my father, although he started off being very keen on trees, the enthusiasm for nature wore off on him, and he became very enthusiastic about protecting those squirrels and the environment.”<\/p>\n

In collaboration with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, the late landowners created the viewing area and trail for the public and continued to ensure that all decisions regarding planting and woodland management prioritised wildlife conservation and ecological health. <\/p>\n

The woods are for sale with a guide price of \u00a3500,000, as the Kemps’ sons do not live in Yorkshire and are unable to continue their work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red squirrels are mostly found in Northumberland and Cumbria, and there are thought to be less than 40,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-526481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}