Saturday the 26th October is King Alfred’s day, and the ancient King has a special place in the heart of Somerset Wildlands, for it was at our site more than 1000 years ago that he sought refuge. But what were things like in his day?

Guess what is back at Athelney? No it's not beavers or wolves or the West Saxons... but it is very exciting.

We're building up a flower-list for Athelney, based on photos and observations we take on site. While only anecdotal, it helps to build a picture of the changes on the sites, and also is a great way for us and other visitors to learn about the plants and animals that make it their home.

As part of the eco-acoustic monitoring we conducted on four of our rewilding sites back in 2023 researchers at the University of Sussex took recordings of the ultrasonic noises made by bats. The results are fascinating, showing 11 different species, including some local rarities.

Lovely article about our work in Someset Life magazine.

The experience from this small corner of England shows that nature, while undoubtedly under threat, remains an incredibly powerful force, coiled to spring back rapidly under the right conditions.

Recently a photographer called Medard Sandor spent a day down at our Athelney rewilding site taking a few pictures for fun. They kindly shared their images with us and we have decided to post some of our favourites. A huge thank you to Medard for his support and for the lovely pictures.

As is usual for this time of year it is underwater. Here Alasdair takes a kayak out to have a quick look around and imagine what the site might look like in future as it wilds up.

Well this is exciting. For the first time we have spotted a flock of common cranes (Grus grus) flying low over our site.

Somerset Wildlands has been working with experts at the University of Sussex to conduct innovative new eco-acoustic monitoring at our sites, investigating not only species, but background acoustic richness.

The Isle of Athelney is a location steeped in history and legend. Archaeologist Theodore Reeves from the University of Birmingham writes about some of his recent work studying the nature of the wetlands, and the evidence for Iron Age ‘marsh forts’ in the area. This is very much work in progress, so we will be sure to return to it when we know more!

It’s been very rainy for the first few weeks of this year, and that has meant a huge amount of water pouring through the Somerset Levels.

Somerset Wildlands is delighted to announce that with our latest purchase of 73 acres of land below the Isle of Athelney in the Somerset Levels, we will be effectively rewilding 'the birthplace of England' .

Huge thanks to The Big Picture and the Matthew Good Foundation for producing this short film for us, introducing people to our work.

Check out this wonderful film made by Matt Jarvis, entirely off his own back (we didn't ask him!). In it he takes a look around a couple of our oldest rewilding sites in Summer 2022 and we think it’s fair to say that he likes what he sees.

Fantastic news - we have found otter footprints on the riverbank at new land at East-Waste. Exciting to think how they might react to the changes the land will undergo in coming years.

Right now, we have an amazing opportunity to secure a wonderful 12 acre piece of land, very close to one of our existing wildland sites in the Somerset Levels.