Mammals

Squirrels

Red Squirrels are our only native squirrel species and have lived in the British Isles for at least 10,000 years. Unfortunately, in the 19th century, a few wealthy landowners began to release North American Grey Squirrels on their estates, for what must have seemed an interesting addition to the local wildlife. The first recorded release of grey squirrels was on the Hanbury Park Estate in Cheshire in 1876, although it is thought that small numbers had been imported as early as the 1820’s.

One person who played a major part in the spread of grey squirrels was Herbrand Russell, the 11th Duke of Bedford. He introduced grey squirrels into the park at Woburn Abbey in the 1880s and gave grey squirrels to many friends around the country for their own estates. Evidence of this is provided by genetic research done at Imperial College London, where Woburn genes are found in populations all over the country. Of course, at the time no one knew how these greys would thrive in the UK and what damage they would cause to our native red squirrels. Grey squirrels can outbreed red squirrels, have no natural predators and, most significantly, are carriers of the Parapox virus. This virus is fatal to red squirrels but not grey squirrels. There are currently about 287,000 red squirrels in the UK but more than 2,700,000 grey squirrels. The changes in populations is clear to see in these maps.

Red Squirrel
Photo by Gary Bruce, Highland Photographer

Grey Squirrel
Photo by Amy Lewis, Woodland Trust

Fortunately, at present, Patterdale and the Ullswater area has a good population of red squirrels. However, for a few years between 2005 and 2015, it looked as though greys had taken over. Action was taken to remove the greys and thankfully the population of reds has recovered. Removal requires a lot of effort by dedicated volunteers and is not a long term solution. There are ongoing studies into more permanent eradication methods, the most promising of which are the reintroduction of pine martens and the delivery of oral contraception through bait.

Deer

Particularly during the colder months of the year, it is common to see large numbers of Red Deer browsing on the slopes of Place Fell. These are from the great red deer herd of Martindale, known in medieval times as “Martindayle Chace”. It is claimed to be the oldest red deer herd in England, from a blood-line that goes back to the first appearance of deer after the Ice Age. During the autumn rut the roaring of the stags echoes around the valley. There are about 400 deer altogether, freely roaming the slopes of The Nab, Place Fell, Bannerdale and Ramps Gill.

In his 1835 Guide Through the Lakes of North England, William Wordsworth wrote: "In Gowbarrow Park, the lover of Nature might linger for hours. Here is a powerful Brook, which dashes among rocks through an intermixture of native wood ; here are beds of luxuriant fern, aged hawthorns, and hollies decked with honeysuckles; and Fallow Deer glancing and bounding over the lawns and through the thickets". Fallow Deer are not a native species in the UK and most herds are captive in parklands. There are none at Gowbarrow nowadays, the only herd in north Cumbria now is at Dalemain, near Dacre.

Roe Deer do not live in herds, so it is individuals or mother and fawns that are regularly seen in the lower parts of the dale. They are a truly native species, with evidence of their existence in Britain over 8,000 years ago. However, by the 18th century they were almost extinct in England, Scotland and Wales, with just small populations surviving in the Lake District and remote parts of Scotland. Their decline began following a judgement made by the Court of the King’s Bench in 1388 which reclassified the roe deer as a ‘Beast of the Warren’ on the grounds that it ‘drove away other deer’. No longer a ‘Beast of the Forest’, the roe deer lost their protection under Forest Laws and led to their extermination in royal hunting preserves and seen as vermin by landowners. Following the passing of the Deer Acts in 1959 and 1963, roe deer populations have increased dramatically throughout Great Britain.

Red Deer
Photo by Braman

Roe Deer
Photo by Soro Epoto

Fallow Deer
Photo by Mario Spencer

Pine Marten

Martindale is named after the pine marten or “sweet mart” as it was known in the Middle Ages. Sadly, this animal was hunted for its beautiful fur until it became one of Britain’s rarest mammals and has not been seen in Martindale since the 1890s. As the 'bounty' paid by the Church Warden at Gowbarrow shows, the pine marten was also seem as vermin by the farmers.

There are hopes for a come back - in September 2024, a team from the University of Cumbria released 13 pine martens into Grizedale Forest and Rusland Valley in the south of Cumbria. Apart from reintroducing a lost species, it is hoped they will help to control the spread of grey squirrels, which are less agile than red squirrels.

Page Editor: Norman Jackson

Page Last Reviewed: 15 Jul 2025

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