Wildlife Trusts complete £30m purchase of Rothbury Estate

The Wildlife Trusts and Northumberland Wildlife Trust have completed their purchase of the whole 9,500-acre Rothbury Estate, closing the largest fundraising appeal in the movement’s history two years after it began. The charities confirmed on Friday, 30 October that a low-interest loan has bridged the gap between pledges still to arrive and the £30m target, taking the entire Northumberland estate into conservation ownership in one piece.

How was the £30m raised?

More than 25,000 people in over 50 countries gave to the appeal, with gifts from the public alone raising more than £17m. A £5m grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund in March 2026 took the campaign past the halfway point, and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) pledged £1.94m this month.

Sir David Attenborough’s backing generated more than £1m in donations in a single week. “The Wildlife Trusts called for your support and you answered in your thousands,” the broadcaster said. “This will be a place where nature, community, farming and heritage can combine to create something very special for generations to come.”

What does the purchase mean for moorland management?

The estate, offered for sale by the Percy family, is the latest large upland holding to pass out of private ownership. The Trusts bought the first portion, taking in the Simonside Hills, in October 2024, and the remainder was secured under a two-year option that ran to this autumn.

Its moorland and woodland hold curlew, lapwing and merlin, with red squirrels in the woods and salmon in its rivers, and the new owners say they want “a landscape where nature-friendly farming and wildlife thrive together”. Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, said the charities would work “alongside local communities, farmers and fellow land managers who know and care for this landscape so deeply”. The completion announcement makes no mention of the estate’s sporting rights, and the Trusts have not set out what will happen to shooting over the ground.

What happens next

Work now begins on the Trusts’ plans for landscape-scale restoration, including the estate’s role in a proposed 40-mile nature corridor running from the north-east coast to Kielder. Citizen-science projects open in November, taking in reptile surveys, soil health testing and an autumn acoustic monitoring survey, and the charities will repay the bridging loan as outstanding pledges arrive. Updates are published through Northumberland Wildlife Trust, and the estate’s new management arrangements, including any decision on sporting rights, will be reported as they are set out.