Historic landscape revealed
28 February 2011
One of the finest Georgian landscapes in Wales is gradually emerging from choking undergrowth and returning to its former splendour as a five-year restoration project gets under way.
The Stackpole Estate in Pembrokeshire was once a summer retreat for the Scottish Earls of Cawdor, and the family laid out its impressive landscaping during the 18th and 19th centuries. They artificially flooded three valleys to make the Bosherton Lily Ponds, fed by limestone aquifers, as well as planting extensive woodlands and pleasure grounds. Many specimens were brought back from planthunting expeditions by family acquaintance Sir Joseph Banks, some of which remain to this day.
However in recent years, cherry laurel, rhododendron and Japanese knotweed have smothered much of the original planting, putting at risk the rare lichens for which the woodland is known and obscuring once far-reaching views. Soil and debris from the surrounding land has also silted up the lily ponds, causing concern for colonies of bristly stonewort (Chara hispida), which survives only in low-nutrient limestone pools.
Now, with help from a £170,000 grant from the Forestry Commission, the undergrowth is being cleared and the lakes dredged. Over the next few years, conifer plantations planted in the 1960s are also being replaced with more thoughtfully-chosen semi-natural woodlands, and views from the site of the former mansion house opened up.
'It's about revealing the landscape again,' said Shane Logan, operations manager at the Estate for the National Trust. 'I want to bring back the whole feeling that you can look out now from where the big house used to stand and see the view the Cawdors would have seen.'