Visiting Knepp

Knepp has become famous due to the landscape scale rewilding project put into effect by Charles Burrell and Isabella Tree. I've read about it in various books and have been listening to Tree's The Book of Wilding. So, it was great to go to Sussex and take a walk around the site.

A lot of oak trees, and I saw the free roaming cows. I also glimpsed a Tamworth pig and some Exmoor ponies.

It's very interesting as you do have to accustom yourself to the aesthetic. A field with a lot of ragwort and huge bramble patches can seem unkempt. But then, you think about the invertebrates; about birds and small mammals hidden beneath the thorns and the oak seedlings given a chance to grow, protected from herbivores. You see the areas dug up by rootling pigs and the way the animals have opened up the scrub. It starts to make sense.

No rain, but it was muggy and I was a little rushed on my 9km walk, which was a shame as there are six viewing platforms at Knepp, like treehouses for adults. They were brilliant and I could have stayed in any one of them for an hour or more. In addition to the short time I had, the place was quite busy as it was half-term.

They get 130,000 visitors a year. I'm not surprised: there is a shop selling lovely goods, a cafe with natural produce, a camping and glamping site (with shepherd's huts, yurts, gypsy caravans, and two treehouses, plus a sauna in an old horse trailer!), safaris and experiences....

Apparently, people have complained that "the dawn chorus is too loud" and "the stars are too bright".

They have introduced storks and beavers as well as the free-ranging domestic animals. It really is quite a place and a special project.