Wildlife

The nature and wildlife available at your fingertips at Butterwell makes us a unique destination for your holiday. We offer guests a beautiful and peaceful setting to appreciate unspoilt nature and wildlife in Cornwall within our private grounds.

Butterwell is A Special Area of Conservation, An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and A Site of Specific Scientific Interest. We also land categorised as Ancient Woodlands. It’s our priority to manage our land in an environmentally sensitive and sustainable way to preserve Butterwell for future generations.

Butterwell is home to an abundance of wildlife including otters, foxes, deer, badger, stoat, squirrel, mole, woodpecker, buzzard, dipper, kingfisher, heron, egret, willow tit, coal tit, jay, sparrow hawk, bitten, owls and Canadian geese. We also have amphibian residents including terrapins, frogs, toads, grass snakes and adders. Most of these wonderful creatures choose to rear their young right here at Butterwell. View the gallery below to see some examples.

Here are a couple of videos of wildlife at Butterwell Farm.

The River Camel

Our finest asset at Butterwell is the River Camel. The river features some of the most pristine habitats in Cornwall and a wealth of wildlife. The river’s surrounding banks, woodlands and marshes are designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation. This is because they contain plant, animal or insect life that is threatened or rare throughout Europe.

The wilds of Bodmin Moor, with its extensive areas of peat bogs and clear feeder streams, is the source of the county’s two principal rivers, the Fowey and the Camel. The River Camel goes through Bodmin and Wadebridge to the Atlantic Ocean at the North coast sites of Padstow and Rock.

Many rare species of plant and animal life are found in and around the river including otters, kingfishers, greater and lesser horseshoe bats. In addition to the many fish species including the very rare lampreys – a large eel like creature.

The River Camel is an important stronghold for the otter, one of Britain’s rarest and shyest mammals. Otters travel the length of the river in search of food and are regularly seen at Butterwell and often choose it to make their home.

Through the Woodland Trust, Forestry Commission and self-funded projects we have planted well over 1000 trees at Butterwell Farm. Creating new woodland areas and also replacing ash die-back. We planted common alder, flowering cherry, mountain ash, ordinary ash, hawthorn, wild cherry, beech, aspin, small leafed lime, silver birch and oak.

We work hard to maintain and improve important features and habitats such as:

• Woodland and grassland restoration, paying particular attention to the natural glades.
• Planting new trees along the riverbank to improve stability and erosion. This in turn protects our extensive wetlands, which are home to an abundance of birdlife and wildlife.
• Maintain our ponds, which are considered of high wildlife value.
• Control of invasive species, such as Himalayan Balsam, to enable other native species to thrive.
• Hedgerow restoration and management.