Mirk Pot Woods: One of the few places to see rare red squirrels in Yorkshire on market for £500,000
A “stunningly beautiful” 37-acre estate, one of the only places to see the rare red squirrel in Yorkshire, has been put up for sale for £500,000 by the sons of much-loved conservationists who transformed it into a wildlife haven.
Red squirrels are abundant in Mirk Pot Woods - an estate near Snaizeholme in the Yorkshire Dales - thanks to conservation efforts by Jane and Hugh Kemp.
The pair moved onto the estate in the 1960s and began planting conifers.
Red squirrels were first spotted by workers in the 1990s and the sightings became increasingly regular.
Nationally, the species has seen a ‘drastic decline’ over the past century, according to the Woodland Trust, which estimates only 280,000 are left in the country.
They are vastly outnumbered by their grey counterparts, perhaps due to differences in gut bacteria allowing grey squirrels to eat a broader diet, including tree bark.
The species’ biggest threat is grey squirrels which carry a pox affecting red squirrels.
As a result, it was a surprise when red squirrels were first spotted at Mirk Pot Woods more than two decades ago.
Jane died in 2021, a decade after her husband Hugh.
Jane and Hugh’s sons Magnus, 59, and David, 61, don’t live in the area and have now put the reserve on the market after they passed away in the hopes “someone else has the honour of looking after it for a while”.
He told the Yorkshire Post that there was scepticism when forestry workers first spoke of ‘glimpses of squirrels’.
However, their presence had later been confirmed by 1997.
Whilst it is not known how the red squirrels came to the woods, they were sustained in part by the cones of Sitka spruce trees which had been planted on the land.
After the squirrels became established, the Kemps worked with the Yorkshire Dales National Park to allow the public to see the rare species, which they saw as a way to ‘share the joy’.
A viewing point was built and a volunteer-run minibus service was set up to bring visitors from nearby Hawes, where squirrel food can be bought from the pet shop.
The estate is now recognised by the Woodland Trust, the Dales National Park Authority and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.
“The whole community really helps in different ways,” Magnus said.
The estate has already been on the market for a year.
Victoria Heartley, a land agent at Jonathan Wallis, the company selling the property, described it as a ‘niche property’.
“It’s not commercial woodland that you could cut down and sell because it’s a nature reserve specifically for the red squirrel,” she said.
Magnus agrees that the estate’s next owner will have to be passionate about the natural world rather than having any commercial interest.
“Eventually you would see red squirrels whilst you were doing the washing up!”, Magnus said.
He is hopeful that “there are enough people who can see the wonder and the beauty of the place” for a buyer to be found.