David Attenborough backs last ditch-bid for Northumberland estate

The Wildlife Trusts and Northumberland Wildlife Trust are racing to raise £30 million to buy the entire 3,800-hectare Rothbury Estate, a 15-square-mile tract of former grouse moor, woodland, farmland, streams and rivers.

The estate, which includes the much-loved Simonside Hills already brought into conservation ownership in October 2024, is the largest area of land to be put on sale in England in decades and sits at the heart of a proposed 40-mile “wild corridor” stretching from the Northumberland coast to Kielder and the Scottish border.

Thanks to donations, pledges and philanthropic loans, more than £20.6m has now been raised or pledged towards the £30m target, with the appeal having passed the halfway mark earlier this year on the back of a £5m grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Sir David Attenborough’s decision last year to champion the Rothbury Appeal triggered a surge in support, with hundreds of thousands of pounds donated in the days after his video message calling on the public to help secure what he described as a “huge, heart-shaped expanse of moorland, rivers, forest and upland in Northumberland” for nature and the nation.

Lordenshaw Hill Fort, Rothbury Estate (Image: The Wildlife Trusts)

This month’s push is being powered by a £100,000 match funding pledge from The Dixon Foundation and Newcastle-based tea company Ringtons.

Every donation made throughout August, including to the main Rothbury appeal page, will be doubled until the £100,000 pot is used up, meaning each £1 given becomes £2 for nature recovery at the estate.

Northumberland Wildlife Trust chief executive Mike Pratt said the appeal remains a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to secure a landscape-scale project for wildlife, people and heritage.

Work is already underway on the section of land that has already been purchased, with grassland recovery beginning, peatland restoration plans in development, and wildlife surveys and community partnerships expanding conservationists’ understanding of the site.

Supporters are being urged to donate in the coming weeks to ensure the rest of the Rothbury Estate is not broken up and sold off to multiple buyers, a scenario campaigners fear could see the land managed for profit rather than wildlife.

Donations can be made on The Wildlife Trusts’ Rothbury Estate appeal and the August match funding page via: www.wildlifetrusts.org/appeals/rothbury-estate-match-appeal-august-2026