# “This Is Their Kingdom”: Inside Brian May’s 157-Acre Wildlife Fortress with 100,000 Native Trees and a Strict ‘No Humans’ Zone Enforced by Night Cameras
**DORSET, ENGLAND — Most rock stars build palaces. Brian May built a kingdom. And he doesn’t live in it.**
On 157 acres in Dorset, the Queen guitarist has created something far removed from stadiums: a wildlife sanctuary where humans are visitors at best — and at night, not even that.
The land wasn’t always a sanctuary. When May acquired it, the acreage was conventional farmland — productive but ecologically barren. May decided to shift it back. He erased the farmland. Planted 100,000 native trees. Restored hedgerows. Reintroduced species that had disappeared decades ago.
But one decision sets this sanctuary apart. A strict “no humans” zone exists across significant portions of the property. At night, infrared cameras monitor the boundaries — not to keep animals out, but to keep people from wandering in.
“This isn’t about exclusion,” May explains. “It’s about giving them one place where they don’t have to accommodate us. One place where they come first.”
Deer roam where tractors once churned. Dormice nest in hedges that didn’t exist a decade ago. Bird species return to skies that had forgotten them. May visits occasionally. He walks quietly. Observes. Takes notes. Then he leaves.
“This is their kingdom,” he says. “I’m just the one who helped them get it back.”
For a man who has spent his life creating sound, May has found equal passion in silence — the quiet of a forest at night, the knowledge that somewhere out of frame, life is happening without an audience. On 157 acres in Dorset, 100,000 trees are growing. Animals are living without fear. And a man who could have built anything chose to build something that doesn’t need him at all.
