Wykeham Estate (N Yorks)

Wykeham Estate is part of the Dawnay Estates, “a group of thriving rural businesses based in some of the most beautiful countryside in England. The Estates are managed with a long-term view which includes an acute recognition of our responsibility towards the environment.” So states the 12th Viscount Downe, who owns and lives on the huge Wykeham Estate. Responsibility to the environment? This being North Yorkshire, the estate almost inevitably supports shooting and hunting. The Wykeham Shoot is “proud to offer some of the best game shooting in North Yorkshire” (the county regularly named as the worst place in the UK for raptor persecution), and their grouse shoots on the Danby Moors “welcome visitors from the UK as well as international guests from as far afield as the Netherlands, Belgium and America”. Shoots start in the former tack room at Wykeham Abbey, where lunch is also served to gun-toting customers. Wykeham Abbey was reported by East Coast Yorkshire Hunt Sabs to be the venue for the opening meet of the Derwent Hunt in November 2024, whose kennels at Snainton are almost within walking distance of the Abbey. The Derwent were filmed trespassing in Chafer Wood, a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust nature reserve, by Helmsley Monitors in February 2024.