Red Deer Talk - Lee Schofield

Join Lee Schofield for an evening to understand the habits and habitat of our local Red Deer.

7pm - The Quiet Site, Watermillock, Ullswater

Lee is Author of Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm. Lee also has extensive knowledge of England's oldest Red Deer herd, who roam the fells of Hawswater and Ullswater, famously known for their echoing bellows during the Red Deer Rut during October. 

The Quiet Site are hosting our evening, and their famous pizzas will be available from their bar from 6pm. Please preorder when you book your talk ticket.

6pm-7pm: Pizza (please pay & preorder numbers - there will be various pizza choices when you arrive for the evening)

7:15pm - 8:45pm: Lee Schofield 

Julie Carter, founder of Mindfell and award winning author & Hiking Highs are hosting 3 days of walking, wandering the writing to 'Find your words in the fells'. This evening talk with Lee is part of this event, bringing another element into the event for our writers.  We would like to invite others to join us to hear from Lee and get involved in questions and answers too. If you would like to join any of the individual days for writing workshops with a theme, these will be available as an 'add-on' when you purchase your talk ticket.

- Monday 19th October - Rock Theme - AM writing workshop / lunch / PM hike (£68)
- Tuesday 20th October - Red Deer Rut Theme - Ullswater Steamers / 1hr workshop / Red Deer Hike (£68)
- Wednesday 21st October - The Watershed of Helvellyn & its journey to Ullswater - AM Workshop / lunch / PM Hike (£68)

These optional add-on’s are available when booking this our Lee Schofield evening for joining us for these three days also. If you are not joining us for Lee’s talk, but would like to join the day time events individually or all these are a package for £290, then please email [email protected] 

We are privileged to have Lee join us for the evening, here is Lees’s own personal bio writen for his book Wild Fell:

Lee Schofield is a British conservationist, ecologist, and nature writer, best known for his book Wild Fell: Fighting for Nature on a Lake District Hill Farm, which chronicles a decade of pioneering habitat restoration at Haweswater in the Lake District National Park

Schofield was born in Scotland but spent his childhood in rural Devon, where his family ran a small business producing and distributing West Country foodstuffs. He studied zoology at university and later earned an MSc in Ecological Management from Imperial College London.  His dissertation examined social attitudes toward large mammal reintroductions in the Scottish Highlands, a topic he has revisited in his writing.

In 2012, Schofield became Site Manager for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) at Haweswater, following the charity’s takeover of Naddle and Swindale Farms.  Working in partnership with United Utilities, he oversaw restoration of woodland, bogs, hay meadows, and rivers, replacing intensive sheep grazing with sustainable grazing using native cattle, ponies, and sheep. These efforts have boosted populations of Atlantic salmon, red grouse, marsh fritillary butterflies, water voles, and specialist upland plants.

Haweswater is now recognised as one of the UK’s most ambitious nature recovery projects. Schofield’s work integrates “farming with nature” and rewilding techniques, balancing biodiversity goals with local land-use debates. 

His first book, Wild Fell (2022), blends ecological reporting with personal reflection, detailing both the ecological changes and the challenges of conservation in the uplands.  The book won the Richard Jefferies Award (2023) and was Highly Commended in the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Conservation (2022).

Schofield has contributed to BBC Wildlife, British Wildlife, Cumbria Life, and other outlets leeschofield.co.uk, co-authored academic papers, and regularly gives talks on conservation.