MORE than a decade’s worth of improvements at one of the world’s most famous grouse moors is almost complete.

Wemmergill Moor Estate, in Upper Teesdale, has often been dubbed the playground of the rich and famous, as it belonged to the Queen Mother’s family – the Bowes Lyons – for centuries.

Famous visitors who have shot grouse on the Lunedale moorland have included Prince Charles and King Juan Carlos of Spain, while the German Kaiser Wilhelm II is believed to have stayed at Old Wemmergill Hall when he visited the moor during a shooting trip in 1902.

The 17,000-acre estate, which also includes six farms, was bought by Michael Cannon in 2006 for £5.25m – ending the Strathmore family’s 444-year ownership.

The former businessman, once in the pub and restaurant trade, has since spent millions of pounds regenerating the land – and has said that moorlands are a particular passion of his.

Since taking over the estate, perhaps his biggest achievement has been to provide a habitat to help conserve some of Britain’s rarest birds, including the black grouse.

Work has included the restoration of thousands of acres of heather, the planting of thousands of trees and shrubs as well as sheep shelters to protect the heather.

Managing director of Wemmergill Moor Limited, Richard Johnson, said: “Most of the developments have already taken place; there’s one or two new things like a new track that we want to put in, but by and large, all the infrastructure works have been done.

“We took over in 2004 and there’s been heavy investment over 12 years since then.”

During his time as owner, Mr Cannon has submitted about 15 planning applications to Durham County Council, with everything from building new access tracks to providing sheep-houses and lambing barns for tenant farmers to creating new access tracks.

He also built a new estate house on the site of the Old Wemmergill Hall in 2008, following the demolition of the original during the 1970s.

However, Mr Cannon's company was fined £50,000 with £240,0000 costs in 2008 after building two access tracks across protected peat bog without planning permission after an "error of judgement". Restoration was also ordered.

Mr Johnson added that employment had also benefited since Mr Cannon bought the estate.

“We are currently in the top three for grouse shooting in the country and, just to give a flavour of it, when Michael Cannon took over there were two full-time gamekeepers employed and now we have seven, so that in itself is a significant input into the local economy.

“Six of those seven are housed in properties owned by the estate, where there’s been substantial investment in upgrading them and we now have a full-time housekeeper, too,” he said.