I fail to see what is cute about squirrels. Grey squirrels, that is. No question that our native red squirrels are some of the most adorable of all our native mammals. The problem is that we just don't see them as much as their imported American cousins, which now dominate most of the country and continue to expand their territories northwards, driving out the native reds. In July I travelled from Argyll to Kent just at a time when squirrels hit the headlines after a bizarre stunt where two anti-vegan activists staged a rather off-putting grey squirrel eating protest in London.
My travels started at Inveraray Castle in Argyllshire, a county that is a stronghold for native red squirrels. There are squirrels in the Dining Room at the castle, home to the Duke and Duchess of Argyll, but they certainly don't eat them here. At Inveraray, the squirrels are painted on the wall, part of an exquisitely pretty decoration created by two Parisian painters, Girard and Guinand. The decoration is important because these two painters were also employed by the Prince Regent to decorate rooms at his palace of Carlton House which was demolished in 1826 so this is as close as we can get to enjoying those lost royal interiors. The lightness of the rococo decoration, squirrels and all, also brings a femininity to the Scottish baronial solidity of Inveraray which feels thoroughly French. I didn't see any squirrels in the woods at the castle - red squirrels are shy and hard to see - but the charming mural details were a perfect substitute.
While a mere 160,000 red squirrels romp happily in Scotland, further south is more of a warzone between reds and greys. This is a war the greys always win; outcompeting reds for food, travelling faster and carrying the deadly squirrel pox virus. In Northumberland, the gardens of Cheeseburn Grange are today home to Cheeseburn Sculpture, bringing exciting contemporary work to a restored Victorian garden which is filled with colourful planting and contemporary art in a huge variety of materials. One of the semi-permanent works is by the young North East sculptor, Dan Gough.
Entitled Scurry it depicts the battle between the reds and the greys with 2,000 ceramic squirrels dancing through the undergrowth. When the sculpture was conceived in 2016, Cheeseburn Grange near the Tyne valley had been on the border between red squirrels and the encroaching greys, now this is grey squirrel territory and the reds have again retreated northwards. Along the same Northumberland border between reds and greys, the National Trust have scored a significant victory at Wallington, about 12 miles further north, where a population of red squirrels in the 13,000 acres estate was almost wiped out in 2011 but is now 150 strong.
And on to Kent via the National Maritime Museum, where squirrels (grey ones now) are very much in evidence and bold as brass in Greenwich Park. Here lies a problem; Londoners would not be happy without their cheeky semi-tame grey squirrels. Reds are very different characters and would loathe urban parklands with deciduous trees and over friendly pet dogs. And it seems clear that Londoners would not willingly give up their grey squirrels - a few may not even be aware that the greys shouldn't really be there at all.
There are no red squirrels left in the South. Well hang on, that's not quite true. There is a brave move by the Red Squirrel Survival Trust to reintroduce them to Cornwall, using stock carefully chosen from the Red Squirrel Stud book (yes, there is one!). Some of these pioneering Cornish squirrels will come from an introduction programme initiated in 2012 at Georgian Trewithen, home of the Galsworthy family and also a house with fabulous rococo interiors. In the gardens at Trewithen is an enclosure which now has a successful breeding population of the cutest red squirrels. It's nice to see that the sheltered forested estates of our remaining large country houses are being put to good use as squirrel shelters. Perhaps we can look forward to a day when red squirrels bring their charm once more to every part of the country but it needs the vigilance of all of us to ensure that the painted squirrels on the walls of the Dining Room at Inveraray are not just a reminder of what we have lost.
#redsquirrels #historichouses #gardens #Inveraraycastle #cheeseburnsculpture #WallingtonNT #nationalmaritimemuseum #Trewithen