The drive to this house was built around 1840 through a bog. Drainage ditches were dug and a lot of bottoming was put in to give the drive a good foundation. For many years estate workers carried out maintenance, cutting back the birch woodland on either side of the drive. At various times single conifers were planted: Douglas fir, Norway spruce. Beyond the open birch wood and meadow, there were (and are) plantations of Norway spruce, Scots pine and hybrid larch.

Beaver kits are weaned at around ten weeks old. According to Dietland Müller-Schwarze and Lixing Sun's book 'The Beaver: Natural History of a Wetlands Engineer' (Comstock Books 2003) the female often moves out of the main lodge at this point and goes to stay in a burrow on her own until her kits are weaned. It is not clear, from this book, that this applies to both species, so it would be interesting to hear from anyone with a good knowledge of beavers if females of both species do the same when weaning their young.