Best Practice Case Studies

Paxton House & Country Park
- Conservation work pays for itself

Paxton House is the finest example of a Palladian country house in Scotland. Designed by Adams Brothers, the family firm of Robert Adam, it sits on the banks of the River Tweed just north of the border between Scotland and England, 4 miles west of Berwick-Upon-Tweed.

The house and grounds are managed by Paxton Trust, a registered charity. It has a fascinating collection of original Chippendale furniture and houses the largest collection of publicly owned art exhibited outside of the National Galleries of Scotland.

The house adjoins a country park with formal gardens, parkland and mixed, deciduous woodland. The nature conservation interests of the Tweed, including its salmon, are recognised in its designation as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). To minimise the impact of tourism in this sensitive area, the staff have adopted 'green' management practices such as monitoring flora and fauna. These have been recognised through a Bronze award from the Green Tourism Business Scheme.

Getting children involved
Paxton House has a lot to offer children and has designed a number of children's activities around the natural environment. There is an adventure playground, a Nature Detective Trail and activities for younger visitors figure-headed by 'Paxton Ted'. In the woodland there are marker posts where budding young naturalists can take brass rubbings of species they see in the gardens. Other activities for future David Attenboroughs include nature walks and mini-beast hunts.

Paxton House has a wildlife WATCH group, full of enthusiastic young people who have raised money to fund a dipping pond on site. Offering so much for children means Paxton House attracts families who tend to make a whole day of the visit to the house and grounds.

Local school conservation groups have helped with a variety of conservation works such as footpath building and woodland planting. The enthusiasm and the energy of the children have made these projects a resounding success.

There are also guided tours for adults, which include dawn chorus walks where visitors may see any of the fiftyfive bird species recorded on site.  Other wildlife attractions are the salmon and otter, which can be viewed from a specially designed hide by the river.

Volunteers and Red Squirrels
One of the key conservation projects and attractions on site is the population of red squirrels. In 1997 Paxton House won the BT Environment Week Challenge Award in recognition of a team of hard-working volunteers who erected a squirrel viewing hide and feeding station. Visitors to Paxton House can now enjoy the rare treat of watching these threatened animals without disturbing them. Working with the Scottish Borders Red Squirrel Conservation Officer, they encourage red squirrels through supplementary feeding and grey squirrel control.

Future plans
Before the current management scheme was implemented the woodland was in great need of attention, as there had been no management for half a century. A local contractor is thinning out the dense cover in some areas to let light penetrate to the forest floor. This will encourage ground flora and provide an even more scenic area for visitors to enjoy.

Part of the estate is surrounded by low walls or ha-has for keeping cattle out. A ha-ha that allows the livestock drinking access to the river, needs repair. A future plan is to employ a local dry stone wall maker to do the repair and pass on skills to local children.

There are also plans to expand the footpath system as woodland areas are opened up through woodland thinnings, which will provide more areas for visitors to explore. The footpath network is an essential tool in keeping visitor impact to a minimum by preventing erosion over the rest of the site. Together the house and grounds attract 21,000 visitors annually. Paxton House aims to enhance the visitor experience in the near future by publishing a new booklet highlighting the natural heritage of the country park.

Conservation work pays for itself
As a private trust, finding funds for nature conservation work can be a challenge, but Trust Director Mr Malden feels that the projects more than pay for themselves by enhancing visitor enjoyment and numbers. Quite simply, nature conservation helps tourism as "it lets people know we are taking care of what has been left to us," a sound sustainable philosophy.

For more information, please contact:

John Malden (Trust Director)
Paxton House
Berwick upon Tweed
TD15 1SZ

Phone: 01289 386 291
E-mail: estate@paxtonhouse.com
Website:http://www.paxtonhouse.co.uk/

This case study features in the publication 'Greening Scottish Tourism: Linking the Built & Natural Heritage, 10 Best Practice Case Studies'.  You can download the full publication at the bottom of this page.

Case study added August 2005

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