England’s hidden 7,500-acre wilderness could become the ‘Yellowstone of Britain’ — a £8.5 million rewilding project aims to bring back rare wildlife over the next 20 years

In one of the most remote corners of England, a vast stretch of Northumberland countryside is being given a dramatically different future.

Emblehope Moor, a 7,500-acre estate surrounded by forests and rugged uplands, has been acquired by nature restoration company Restore for £8.5 million. The organisation wants to reshape the landscape over the next two decades, restoring damaged peatland, changing grazing patterns and creating conditions for wildlife such as golden eagles, curlews, black grouse and beavers to thrive.

The project is particularly notable because of what Restore plans to do with the land eventually. Rather than retaining the estate as a permanent private holding, the organisation intends to repay its financing, provide returns to investors and ultimately transfer the land to community or charitable ownership.


The ambitious plan is part of a broader wave of nature restoration projects taking shape across Northumberland.

A landscape with an unusual future

Emblehope Moor was previously associated with activities including grouse shooting, sheep farming and dog training. The land is already recognised for its ecological importance as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

There is also a surprising amount of wildlife already present.

The estate supports birds of prey including merlins and golden eagles, while its waterways contain trout and salmon. Red squirrels and pine martens are also found in the surrounding landscape, according to The Guardian.

Restore's objective is therefore not to create nature from scratch. Instead, the company wants to repair habitats that have been degraded and make the existing landscape more capable of supporting a wider range of species.

The organisation is still seeking around £4 million to finance its 20-year restoration programme.

Could Northumberland become Britain’s Yellowstone?

Emblehope is part of a much larger transformation taking place across northern Northumberland.

Several large estates in the region are pursuing nature restoration, while the Wildlife Trusts are attempting to acquire the nearby Rothbury estate through a major fundraising campaign. College Valley and Hepple Wilds are also undertaking conservation work, while Kielder Forest is increasingly being managed with biodiversity alongside forestry in mind.

The combined effect could eventually create a connected network of habitats rather than a collection of isolated conservation projects.

Environmental campaigner Ben Goldsmith has described this emerging landscape as “Britain’s Yellowstone”, a comparison reflecting the scale of the ambition rather than a claim that Northumberland could replicate the American national park.

Restore's founder Benedict Macdonald has similarly argued that the region already represents England's largest concentration of relatively wild landscapes.

The first job is to bring water back

Before beavers or other headline species become central to the project, Restore has a more immediate problem to solve: much of the peatland is too dry.

Drainage systems created across the moor have carried water away from areas that would naturally remain saturated. As a result, sections of sphagnum moss and other peatland vegetation are unusually dry, even during summer.

Restoring those wetlands could have a major impact.

According to modelling cited by The Guardian, rewetting the peat could allow the landscape to retain an additional 100,000 cubic metres of water — roughly the volume of 40 Olympic swimming pools.

The restoration team will need to identify and manage the numerous drainage routes that have altered the movement of water across the estate.

Beavers could become natural engineers

Once the landscape is wetter, Restore expects beavers to play a role in maintaining that water.

The animals are well known for building dams that slow streams and create wetland habitats. Restore has identified areas containing birch and willow, which could provide suitable food.

Macdonald also pointed to examples from Norway where beavers have built dams in landscapes with relatively little woodland, suggesting they may be capable of adapting to the conditions at Emblehope.

If successful, the animals could become an important part of the estate's long-term water management rather than simply being a species reintroduction for its own sake.

Why ponies are being brought in

Another unusual element of the project involves Exmoor ponies.

Parts of the moor are covered by dense, old grass that has accumulated into a dry layer beneath the taller vegetation. Restore sees this as both an ecological problem and a potential wildfire risk.

The ponies will graze the vegetation and help break up the thick grass cover.

That could also improve conditions for other species. Curlew chicks, for example, need suitable vegetation structure to move around and find food. More varied grazing could therefore create a more diverse grassland environment.

The intention is not simply to reduce the amount of grass but to prevent a few aggressive species from dominating the landscape.

Large areas of Sitka spruce will be removed

Dense plantations of Sitka spruce are another major target.

Restore plans to remove significant areas of the non-native conifer, which the organisation believes support less biodiversity than the habitats it wants to establish.

However, the decision comes with trade-offs.

Species such as long-eared owls and crossbills use conifer habitats and could lose some local habitat when the plantations are cleared. Restore argues that these species will still have extensive areas of suitable woodland in neighbouring Kielder.

There is also a less obvious problem: young Sitka trees can appear on open moorland after seeds are carried in by wind.

The project therefore plans to establish belts of broadleaf trees around parts of the estate to reduce the spread of seeds from nearby plantations.

Lynx are not currently part of the plan

The return of the Eurasian lynx is one of the most controversial subjects in Britain's rewilding debate, and Northumberland has become an important part of that discussion.

Restore's promotional material has included images of lynx, but the organisation says it has no funded plan to release the predator at Emblehope.

The debate is particularly sensitive because lynx could potentially help control wild deer, while farmers have raised concerns about the possible consequences for livestock and rural livelihoods.

A survey cited in The Guardian found strong local support for lynx reintroduction, but opposition remains among sections of the farming community. Separate proposals involving Kielder are still being considered.

For now, Emblehope's restoration strategy is focused on habitat recovery rather than bringing back lynx.

The people already working there will stay

Despite the project's rewilding ambitions, Restore does not intend to remove the estate's existing farmer and gamekeeper.

The decision reflects the project's belief that local knowledge is valuable during a major landscape transition.

The people who have worked on the estate for years understand its grazing patterns, wildlife and seasonal changes. Restore believes that experience can complement its conservation goals rather than conflict with them.

That approach also distinguishes Emblehope from a version of rewilding in which human activity is simply removed from the landscape.

Instead, the project aims to change the way people interact with the land.

How the £8.5 million project will make money

Rewilding on this scale requires substantial long-term funding.

Restore plans to generate income through a mixture of conventional activities, including forestry and farming, alongside education, limited tourism and government environmental land-management payments.

However, natural-capital markets are expected to become particularly important.

These include payments connected with carbon storage in restored peatlands and corporate-funded habitat restoration schemes.

The organisation's wider financial model is unusual because it is not designed simply around increasing the value of the estate and holding it indefinitely.

Instead, the aim is to restore the landscape, repay the £4.5 million Triodos Bank loan that helped finance the acquisition, provide investors with their expected returns and eventually place the land under community or charitable ownership.

A different model for rewilding in England

That ownership model could ultimately prove as significant as the ecological restoration itself.

Large-scale rewilding projects can require substantial private investment, but questions often arise over who controls the land and who benefits financially from its increasing value.

Restore is attempting to demonstrate that private capital can fund large-scale environmental recovery without permanently turning the land into an investment asset controlled by a private owner.

If the model works, it could provide a template for other upland areas facing similar challenges.

A 20-year experiment is now beginning

The transformation of Emblehope Moor will take decades rather than months.

Peatland restoration will need time to alter the landscape. New grazing patterns will gradually change vegetation, while beavers could eventually reshape waterways. The removal of Sitka spruce will create new pressures and opportunities for wildlife.

Some species will benefit quickly, while others may temporarily lose habitat.

That makes the project less a simple return to an imagined past and more an experiment in what a future British upland landscape could look like.

For Northumberland, however, Emblehope is only one piece of a much bigger picture.

With several large estates pursuing conservation and habitat restoration in the same region, the county could eventually develop one of England's most extensive connected landscapes for wildlife.

And if Restore's unusual financial and ownership model succeeds alongside its ecological ambitions, the biggest legacy of this remote 7,500-acre moor may not simply be the return of birds, beavers or healthier peatlands.

It could be a new way of paying for — and eventually handing back — Britain's wild places.