Woodchester Bats

The Mansion is not just unique for the architecture – but for the bats too.

The attics house maternity roosts of rare greater and lesser horseshoe bats, both endangered species.

The bats arrive in April and the baby bats (called pups) are born around the end of June/early July. Their birth time is dependent on the weather. The pups are mature by about the beginning of September and all the bats go off to hibernate in the autumn.

The number of bats present is large, approaching 1000 during August.

They can be viewed on our state-of-the-art bat cameras in The Roger Ransome Bat Observatory. To learn more about Woodchester Mansion’s world-class bat viewing facilities, click here.

The Mansion and area around are an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) because of the bats. The environment has to be managed to support the bat colonies.

The bats have been studied since 1959 by Dr Roger Ransome. This long-term study has contributed immensely to the scientific knowledge of these wonderful creatures. Woodchester is known worldwide in the bat research community.

The Woodchester Mansion Trust run bat experiences on summer evenings. Details available here→

Here is a short movie of one of the Woodchester lesser horseshoe bats giving birth. One of our volunteers spotted and filmed this – footage of bat births is rare.

If you are interested in knowing more about the Woodchester bats, please follow these links.

For other videos on the Woodchester bats
https://www.youtube.com/user/WoodchesterBats

Woodchester Bats have their own Facebook page
www.facebook.com/woodchesterbats

To find out how our new Steps to Sustainability grant will help improve our bat facilities in 2022, click here.

2024 Open Day Season

We are open 11am - 5pm every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holidays from Friday 29th March to Sunday 3rd November.

Telephone 01453 861541

Woodchester Mansion,
Nympsfield,
Stonehouse,
Gloucestershire

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