Studley Royal Deer Park is a grand place, dotted with follies and ancient trees. A high stone gate leads to an avenue flanked by giant lime trees. At the top of the avenue is a Victorian church, which commands the landscape and offers a clear view to Ripon Cathedral some miles away, and beyond that, the North York Moors. The deer park is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site, of which the ruins Fountains Abbey is also part. This was once one of the most powerful monasteries in England before Henry VIII ordered it to be pillaged. Deer have been kept here since medieval times and roam the grounds in tight herds. Today there are around 300 to 350 deer from three different breeds: fallow, red, and sika. Red are the indigenous species - fallow deer arrived around the Norman conquest, and sika were introduced in the nineteenth century. The National Trust manages the numbers through culling, the most humane method to ensure a healthy herd size, especially without any natural apex predators - such as wolves - left in this country. Deer numbers would rapidly exceed the capacity of the park if numbers weren't controlled, and the National Trust look to maintain a ratio of males and females so that it doesn't lead to unnatural levels of fighting.