Chased by cattle on National Trust marked route at the Sheffield Park Estate

Incident number: 1276

Response ID: 330,048,467

Date of incident: 08.07.26

Location: Sheffield Parkland, Uckfield. TN22 3QX. On the Tolls circular walk route. Established, signposted route for visitors. National Trust property.

Status: Two people without a dog on National trust ROW

Amber’s story

“We were walking the Tolls route at Sheffield Park Estate – an approximately 45 mins circular route marked with sign posts. The park invites you to walk their parkland and issues maps with the trails on them and signposts several routes with coloured arrows. A staff member verbally stated to us also, on the day, that we could walk on the parkland (outside of the gardens which are a fenced in area around a large house). About 15-20 mins into walking, we were in a huge open area of grass with a few areas of scattered trees, quite far apart from each other, and a larger wooded area beyond a fence in the distance to our right. We were aiming towards a signpost in the distance. A large group of black cattle were far in the distance beyond the signpost. They began to turn and look at us and then to walk in our direction. We diverted 90 degrees directly towards the wooded area with a fence (and we could see a gate). They tracked us and turned towards us. They began to run. I don’t know how many there were, maybe around 20 or more. I felt we had no option but to run at that point, to try to reach the edge and the gate before they reached us. It was terrifying. I felt we were literally running for our lives at that point. We reached the gate and I remember the panic I felt as I was trying to wrestle it open. We went through it. As I turned and shut the gate I saw them all right there behind us, they had reached where we were. We walked away into the wooded area immediately. We then had the problem that the circular route required us to go back through that gate. We had to find an alternative route through adjacent fields. That was also stressful because then we were guessing the direction and limited by barbed wire. Luckily we found large gates to pass through or climb, between fields and made our way back to the car.”