Deer Photography Workshop

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Bradgate Park, with Danny Green

 

Bradgate Park, renowned for its fine herds of deer, is the only remaining enclosed medieval deer park in the East Midlands and contains the oldest rocks in England. (Rocks – what rocks?)

 

Bradgate House was one of the earliest brick-built country houses in England, and the childhood home of Lady Jane Grey, Queen of England for Nine Days in 1553.

 

Ruins of the house and its adjacent chapel

 

Peacocks hang out in the ruins

 

The first written reference to a deer park at Bradgate dates from 1241. The Park supports both Red and Fallow deer, with a herd size of around 550 animals, of which three-quarters are Fallow deer.

 

Fallow Deer Stag

 

Relaxed Fallow Deer Stag

 

The fallow deer rutting season is a week or so after the red deer

 

Under Old John Tower (an 18th-century folly that sits on the highest point of the Park) the Red Deer merge into the bracken background

 

Early morning

 

“By thrashing, raking, and rolling in tall bracken, a stag catches large clumps of ferns and grass in its antlers. This massive, cluttered silhouette makes the stag look significantly bigger and more dangerous to rival males, helping deter fights before they start”

 

 

Oh my, sire, how big you look

 

 

 

 

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See also

• Red Deer in Richmond Park
• Red deer in the New Forest

 

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