Studley Royal Deer Park is a grand place, dotted with follies
and ancient trees. A high stone gate leads to an avenue flanked by
giant lime trees. At the top of the avenue is a Victorian church,
which commands the landscape and offers a clear view to Ripon
Cathedral some miles away, and beyond that, the North York Moors.
The deer park is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site, of which
the ruins Fountains Abbey is also part. This was once one of the
most powerful monasteries in England before Henry VIII ordered it
to be pillaged. Deer have been kept here since medieval times and
roam the grounds in tight herds. Today there are around 300 to 350
deer from three different breeds: fallow, red, and sika. Red are
the indigenous species - fallow deer arrived around the Norman
conquest, and sika were introduced in the nineteenth century. The
National Trust manages the numbers through culling, the most humane
method to ensure a healthy herd size, especially without any
natural apex predators - such as wolves - left in this country.
Deer numbers would rapidly exceed the capacity of the park if
numbers weren't controlled, and the National Trust look to maintain
a ratio of males and females so that it doesn't lead to unnatural
levels of fighting.
