Knepp Wildland: a pioneering project
Discover purple emperors aplenty at this Sussex estate.
By far the best site for purple emperors in the UK is this pioneer rewilding estate south of Horsham, in West Sussex. Some 20 years ago, the land was intensive dairy and arable farmland, supporting little wildlife. Then sallow thickets quickly developed on the ex-arable fields and the butterfly came from woods to the north and colonised these areas. In 2018, day counts of over 300 apparent individual purple emperors were made, indicating that this butterfly can indeed be plentiful.