Stackpole Estate Iolo's Great Welsh Parks

Wales has many wonderful estates

created with the wealth from landowning and industrial families.

Once privately owned,

most of these beautiful parklands are now open for all of us to enjoy.

In this series, I'm uncovering another side to four of these parks,

a side that often goes unnoticed by those who visit.

I'm meeting people with inside knowledge to share,

exploring less visited corners

and finding night-time creatures.

I'm discovering just how great these parks are for wildlife.

Today I'm exploring Stackpole Estate,

which was owned for nearly 300 years by the Cawdor family.

The original estate stretched along nine miles

of this stunning south Pembrokeshire coastline,

but in 1939,

half the land was requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence

to create Castlemartin tank range.

The National Trust now look after the remainder of Stackpole,

including lakes, woodlands,

old buildings, dunes and beaches,

all linked by 30 kilometres of footpath.

The estate was a social venue for the family,

and the magnificent Stackpole Court dominated the landscape.

The house was demolished in the 1960s,

but thankfully the parkland remains.

If you were anyone in the 18th and 19th century,

you had to landscape your estate

to show off your power and wealth to your contemporaries.

And Stackpole, by all accounts,

was one of the best in the whole of Britain.

They planted thousands of trees,

they even moved a whole village, the village of Stackpole.

And they also wanted a water feature to offset this magnificent house,

so what they did, they dammed three valleys

to form what we know today

as Bosherston lily ponds.

Just look at that magnificent view down there.

Many people may visit Stackpole

to see the wonderful displays of lilies,

but there's a great deal more to find here.

Over the last 200 years,

this man-made landscape has become a haven for all sorts of wildlife.

The first valley the Cawdors dammed was the one below the terrace.

It's here that I'm going to start my exploration.

Here's something I haven't seen for a long time.

It's called a bee fly.

It's actually a fly, there he goes, that mimics a bee,

and its got a long, long proboscis as well.

And he's favouring this bank here,

because it's so warm, the sun's hitting it.

And this whole area is really good for insects,

and I can see damselflies, dragonflies as well.

Perhaps the most stunning of all is the broad-bodied chaser.

The male is a slaty blue colour,

whilst the female is a more yellowy gold.

This wetland has changed a lot

since the days that the Cawdors managed this land,

because they would have had a whole army of estate workers

that would have kept this clear,

but it's been taken over by reeds, by yellow iris.

And eventually what happens is that the willow comes in as well,

and if it was allowed to carry on,

it would end up as wet woodland and eventually just woodland.

The old stone bridges,

including the largest of them all, Eight Arch Bridge,

are a fantastic place from which to spot wildlife.

You've got swans and waterfowl in abundance here,

but a good sign that there are lots of fish here.

Over on this side a couple of herons.

There's one over there,

and there's one just by the gate over there, fishing now.

And he's getting small fish, he is,

and you see his neck just dart out

and catch a fish and gobble it,

and then he's off fishing again afterwards.

My next stop along the lake is Grassy Bridge.

In June, you might be lucky enough to catch an annual migration.

Come here at just the right time, just bang on the right day

to see the emergence of toads.

Hundreds of thousands of them will make their way out of the water

and then make their way probably up into the woods here,

where they'll spend a year, 18 months in damp places there.

But look at them, they're minute little things.

They'll be eaten by all kinds of things

from blackbirds and crows, and also herons.

Poor little things, though,

they've been walked on by people walking by,

probably been sniffed by dogs as well as they go.

Beyond Grassy Bridge lies the sea

and stunning Broad Haven South Beach.

During the summer, it's a popular spot for tourists.

The beach is backed by sand dunes,

which are a good place to find lizards.

Behind these dunes to the northwest lies an area few people visit.

This is Mere Pool Valley,

and it used to be a sand quarry all along here,

and they left behind these pools,

and they've been enhanced,

and they're brilliant places for dragonflies and damselflies.

They reckon there are about 22 species here,

so it is a great place,

one of the best in the whole of Wales for them.

We'll have a walk round and see what we see.

There's been a recent emergence of common blue damselflies,

quite a few of them on some of the willow

right around the outside of the pool.

If you come down here, it's another damselfly,

but it's a blue-tailed damselfly.

It's kind of like the common blue,

but it's got a lot more black than blue,

and then it's got this blob of blue by the tail.

As I walk between the pools, I find other insects,

like the striking common blue butterfly.

There's also a four-spotted chaser

and a common darter.

Then I find a really impressive dragonfly.

Oh, there he comes, there he comes, look at the size on this one.

This is one I was really hoping to see.

He's called the emperor,

and it's our biggest one, it's massive!

It's got to be about... well, not far off six inches long,

maybe five, six inches long.

It's a big, big dragonfly, and this is the male.

Blue and black bands all along the body there.

And it's sunbathing, interestingly enough,

on a bit of dead bracken.

And, eh...the reason for that

is because dead bracken gives off a lot of heat.

It absorbs heat and then gives off heat as well.

And as it's cooled off,

this dragonfly has just perched on it,

and it's not getting much heat from the sky at the moment,

but it's still getting a lot of heat from this bracken.

It's very early in the morning, it's just after five o'clock now,

pouring with rain, but it doesn't matter,

because I'm looking for one of Stackpole's most elusive residents,

and I've got help, too.

I'm on my way to Eight Arch Bridge

to meet local naturalist Jim Bebbington.

-Hiya, Jim.

-Morning, Iolo.

-How are you, mate?

-Nice to see you.

Good to see you. Foul weather, isn't it?

-Wouldn't it be just, eh?

-Not the best. Any sign of otters so far?

Not so far, no, but this is where we normally start our day.

We know we've got a mum and a cub that occupy this end of the lake.

-Oh, right.

-At the far end, er... beyond the grassy bridge,

we know we've got a mum and two cubs.

So shall we wander down to the grassy bridge, do you think?

Oh, right, OK.

You know these otters really well.

You're down here virtually every day, are you?

-Just about, yeah.

-Are you?

Oh, yeah, yes, even if we're going on holiday,

I'll come down here for an hour before we go.

-Honestly?

-Yeah.

So you're now spending half your life down here, Jim.

Probably an underestimate probably over half my life!

When you said we were going to see otters, Jim,

I thought we were going to see them like 100 metres away,

but they're right underneath us.

Ten metres away.

-Pretty good, eh?

-These look like two cubs, are they?

-Yeah, this'll be the mum with the two cubs.

-OK.

Ah, they've gone across the lake.

It might be worthwhile going down to the corner at the beach,

because there's a reed bed down there which they often fish in.

It's incredible, isn't it? And they're such fantastic animals.

I just think, whenever you see an otter,

it puts a smile on your face,

not just for that morning but the whole week.

Yeah. It's an experience that we're very privileged to have.

Yeah, yeah, it is, very much so.

But living down here, we see these nearly every day,

I think, "Why would you want to be anywhere else?"

It's incredible how these otters carry on with their lives

despite being watched, but then they're very used to people.

And it's not just the otters.

BIRDSONG

Most of the year, you can feel like you've got Stackpole to yourself,

cos you don't see many people,

but in summer it can be incredibly busy.

There are 250,000 visitors every year here,

and some people actually come here specifically to feed the birds

and especially the robins.

Come on, then.

And because so many people come here,

the birds are used to people and incredibly tame.

'Two of the local bird feeders are Wendy and George Bateman.'

-Hello there.

-Hello.

-How are you? You feeding the birds?

-Yeah.

-Yes.

-Do you come every day, or do you come...?

-About twice a week.

-Oh, do you?

-Yeah, twice a week.

And just to feed the birds?

Yeah, right through the winter and summer.

Singing away, look. And I bet you talk to them, too.

-We do.

-I thought you might.

-My wife does more than me.

-And nickname them.

-Oh, do you? You've got names for all of them, have you?

-Yeah.

-What's this one called, then?

-This is Don Juan.

-Why Don Juan?

-Because he seems to have about three wives.

-Oh, does he?

-Yes. Don't you?

-Oh, there we are.

And he feeds them.

They'll be sitting in a tree, and he goes off and feeds them.

Honestly? So he'll come down and get the food

-and go off and feed them afterwards?

-Yeah.

Well, well, well... So have you got robins

that you feed all along the path, then, in different parts?

-Yes.

-More or less from here down.

How many will you have from here to Eight Arch Bridge down there?

-Four.

-Well, well, well... And every other day or twice a week.

-Twice a week, yeah.

-Thursday and Tuesday.

No wonder they look so fat. They haven't got to look for food.

-They've got the best.

-They've got you to come along.

-Keep feeding them!

-We will.

-Take care.

-Bye!

It's not only the robins that come to the hand to feed.

At Grassy Bridge,

there's a particular tree that's often full of birds

just waiting for you to offer them a treat.

The birds are so used to being fed, you get quite a gathering.

You get great tits like this one, blue tits, chaffinches.

And for a naturalist,

it gives you a real good opportunity to see them close up.

They're common birds, yes, but you rarely get this close to them,

and the thing that strikes me every time one lands on my hand

is just how light they are.

There are other birds here, too,

that are very used to living alongside people.

The old home farmyard and buildings

are now used by the National Trust as their outdoor centre.

During the summer, it's also home to hundreds of house martins.

I remember the first time I ever came to Stackpole,

and it must be more than 20 years ago now,

and being amazed by the number of house martins here.

And every time I come back, I'm still stunned.

And what's happened this time

is there's quite a bit of work going on around me, building work,

and so they seem to have concentrated

on two sides of this old building.

This is the old slaughterhouse,

it's an old, old building with perfect eaves for house martins.

And look at them! Stacked along here.

And a fast count now, I counted, I think, 41 nests.

How often do you see that in Wales now?

And the birds are not long back.

Some are still building these mud cups here.

Others are incubating, I can hear a few birds in here now,

peeking out at me every now and again as well.

The next part of my exploration requires another early start.

Thankfully, it's calm and sunny,

perfect conditions for what I've got planned.

However, I will need a change of outfit.

-Hiya, David.

-Morning, Iolo.

Do you know, I think we can get arrested

for dressing like this on an early morning out here!

'I'm meeting David Miller, an artist and underwater photographer

'who's hoping to introduce me to a fearsome predator,

'Stackpole's pike.'

The plan is to explore the lilies, especially that deeper hole there.

It goes from shallow to deep, which the pike tend to love.

So they're going to be hanging around

at the edges of the lilies where there's deeper water.

This is a real hotspot for a couple of reasons.

I mean, you've got the cover, which pike love.

They're an ambush predator, so they like to lie under cover,

wait for their prey to come near,

and then they'll come out of nowhere in a sort of violent rush.

So you've got the cover,

but what you've also got, this is a real hotspot for roach,

which is one of their main prey species.

So you think if we can find roach, we should be able to find the pike.

Definitely, you find the prey fish, the pike are always somewhere near.

Not far away. I remember walking along here,

it must be 10, 15 odd years ago now,

and seeing one or two really big pike.

There's always legendary pike as well.

-If you talk to some of the old boys...

-They take babies!

Absolutely, yeah, yeah, "Like dolphins they are!"

Well, if there's one the size of dolphin in here,

I tell you, I'm coming straight out!

The underwater landscape is stunning,

but 40 minutes later

we haven't found a single fish.

With two of us in there, I think we're causing too much disturbance.

So I'll come out,

and I'll let David get on with it, I think that's the best bet.

David continued his search, but they remained elusive,

even though he did catch up with their prey.

Fortunately for us, with the water being so clear,

you can often see to the bottom of the lake from the bridges.

Grassy Bridge here

is proving to be a real hotspot for all kinds of animals.

There's a big pike in here, it's got to be 15lb, I think.

And it spends quite a bit of time in this patch here,

sunbathing almost, and then he'll sneak off.

And I think what he does then is he goes under the trees,

under those branches, the willow there,

and lies there, probably waiting in ambush

see if any other fish pass.

And every half hour or so,

he'll come back and sunbathe for a while again.

But it gives you an opportunity to look at pike from above.

They're big fish, they really are big fish.

I'm going to turn my attention away from the lake now

to some of the other areas of the park.

There's a block of woodland near the old house

that looks like a good place to explore.

This is Lodge Park Wood,

and this is where the Cawdor family came for pleasure walking,

for their postprandial walk.

The big house would have been

just a few hundred meters behind me over there.

And it's got a different feel to it, this wood,

and you've only got to stop and look around

and you realise why.

Cos every single one of these large trees you see around me

were planted.

There are very, very few native trees.

There's the odd oak here, sweet chestnut as well, beech.

But then even beech, you see, is not native to this part of Wales.

And some of them, like this big one here,

I haven't got a clue what it is, and it's an unusual wood.

And what's nice is that recently they've cleared vast areas of laurel

which had taken off and covered everywhere,

and that's now gone.

And you see this vegetation coming through,

the native vegetation,

heart's tongue fern here, bluebells here and there.

I'm sure in a year or two it will look magnificent,

probably very similar to what it was in the Cawdors' day.

I decide to find a spot

to listen to the birds living in this unusual wood.

BIRDSONG

Just sitting here peacefully, watching a pair of blue tits.

They've got a nest in a hole,

well, more of a crack, really, in a beech tree up there.

Sometimes both birds go off and come back with caterpillars.

Sometimes it's only the one, the male will come back.

He'll call the female out and feed her.

So I think they've probably got eggs that have just hatched in there.

And whilst I've been sat, I've been listening to the birdsong,

and it's not the richest wood I've ever been in, but it's interesting.

You've got chiffchaff going now, you've got a wren, a blackbird.

But the most fascinating thing is

there's a song thrush perched on a branch just over here,

and I've been listening to that,

and that will sometimes give you a clue of what else is in this wood.

He's trying to give a good impression of himself to the females

so he's making his repertoire of calls as complex as he possibly can.

And what he's doing is he's stealing bits from other birds,

the birds he hears around him.

MIXED BIRDSONG

And one of the bits this song thrush has got is a "kewick-kewick" call,

and a "kewick" is a tawny owl call.

So by listening to that,

I'll know that somewhere in this patch of woodland

is a tawny owl as well.

Although the big house was demolished,

there are still plenty of other buildings and structures

from the days of the Cawdor family.

The walled garden would have been a busy part of the working estate,

but it's a place I haven't visited before.

It occupies a large site next to Lodge Park Wood,

and I'm meeting up with the current manager, Debbie Drewett,

to find out more.

Well, it's a fantastic garden you've got, Debbie how big is this, then?

Getting on for six acres.

-Oh, look out, look.

-Yeah.

Swallows, where are they nesting?

There's some in the loos.

One coming out.

-Is it all right if I have a quick look?

-Yeah, sure.

Oh-ho-ho! I can see little heads, fantastic.

-They're almost ready to go.

-They're lovely, aren't they?

And of course a helicopter,

you're right by Castlemartin Range, aren't you?

-That's right, yeah.

-I was going to say it's a peaceful place,

and it is lovely,

except every now and again you hear a helicopter or tanks or whatever.

Yeah.

These big houses would have had gardeners,

they'd have had all kinds of people working on them, wouldn't they?

We've got a record from...1875 I think it is,

and they had 20 gardeners and four ladies working in the garden.

And, of course, they'd have had all their food grown here,

-virtually, wouldn't they?

-And flowers,

and they also took food to their estate in Scotland.

-And lavender.

-Oh, you'll find that full of bees.

Is it? Red admiral on there, I can see that from here.

A beautiful butterfly, really is.

Oh, look at these bees!

Red-tailed bumblebees, buff-tailed bumblebees...

-So what else would you have in here?

-We've seen hedgehogs in the garden.

The Pembrokeshire Hedgehog Hospital

released quite a few some years ago,

-and they've been breeding since then.

-Oh, wow!

They'll be a big help to you,

cos they'll be taking slugs and snails and all kinds of stuff.

And look at this, you've got all peas and berries and cabbages.

Yeah, we've had a lot of mice in the garden this year,

it's been a bit of a problem.

If you look down on the strawberry beds,

the squirrels are popping backwards and forwards all the time,

helping themselves.

But there seems to be plenty for everybody so...

Squirrels, see, squirrels I don't like so much.

Mice is all right, squirrels, er...

-Oh, the mice have done most damage.

-Have they?

-Yeah.

So this wall, this was put in way back, was it?

-This dividing wall.

-In the 1800s, yeah.

-They had peach and nectarine houses on the south side of it.

-Wow!

In each of the two...banquetaires they're called.

They're two-storey, and there's a fireplace in the lower floor,

and that vents into the wall, so it's a hot wall.

Oh, look at that! Are these honeybees?

-They are, yeah.

-Oh, wow.

They're in the space in the hot wall.

Oh, wow, a whole mass they're very active,

they're coming back with full pollen sacs on their back legs,

bringing that in for the grubs.

Tell you what, this is a wildlife oasis in here.

The old stables, now private apartments,

are also home to a very special and very rare animal.

As dusk and the rain falls, I'm meeting up with Mary Chadwick

to find out more about the greater horseshoe bats that live here.

How long have we got before they'll start coming out?

Oh, quite a while, I think.

I would say it'll be about quarter to ten-ish before they come out.

Oh, right, OK, so we've got 45 minutes.

Well, I tell you what I've got.

-I've actually got some footage on here of this very colony.

-Oh, yeah?

Which was all done under licence a while back now,

but you'll find this fascinating,

and it will be interesting to pick your brains, see what's going on.

So is it going? Oh, here we are, look, here we are.

This is the roof, I assume,

and it's been partitioned off - one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

There's a monitoring programme to look at the juvenile bats.

So this is a nursery roost this is where they come to give birth?

-It is, that's right.

-When do they arrive here?

They'll start in April, May time, depending a bit on the weather.

Probably July is when the young will be born,

and then they'll stay through till October, November time.

Do we know where the others go?

Yeah, they tend to go to a lot of the sea caves around the coast.

-Oh, do they?

-Yeah.

-Well, well, well!

And old mine adits, a few old tunnels.

Look at this, this is lovely, there's a real cluster of them.

Yeah, they do that, yes, cos they need to be pretty warm,

so they will all group together,

and as the temperature rises, they spread out more.

-One, two, oh... I can't even count them.

-No.

-It's got to be...

-There's loads.

-What? 20 and more bats just clustered into one small area!

-Yes.

They're quite big bats.

They are, greater horseshoes are one of the biggest bats,

with a wingspan of over a foot.

So when you see them hanging up in the roost like this,

they're like a big pear.

And you can see them hanging by one foot, using the other one to preen.

Yeah.

I love bats, I really like bats,

-but they're pretty ugly.

-No, you can't say that!

There was a close-up there, right,

and that really was quite ugly, I have to say.

I'll admit, there are cuter bats than horseshoes, it has to be said.

How many bats are up in this roost now?

Numbers are growing every year.

-Last year there was a total of over 600...

-Wow!

..at the peak time, and that was just the adults.

-Well, there we are, that's the footage.

-Yeah.

It's getting pretty dark now,

and our normal cameras won't work from now on in,

cos it's going to get too dark for them,

so we're going to turn over to infrared now,

which is that camera over there,

which is why Mary and I look a little bit different now.

But we should be able to follow the bats with this as well.

Oh, it looks like they might be starting to come now.

-And they just fly backwards and forwards.

-Yeah, in here.

For quite a while. They're so manoeuvrable, aren't they?

They just turn those corners so quickly.

Incredible... Have you got a bat detector with you?

I have got a bat detector.

Because I just wanted to hear what kind of noise these make.

I think it's lovely, it's a wonderful warbling sound.

Oh, wow.

WARBLING CHIRP

It sounds like a bird!

It's like nothing else, is it? It's amazing.

Here they come!

Do we know where they go here, once they head out?

Well, they will feed a lot around the Stackpole Estate.

They like open woodland, glades through woodland and parkland trees,

so this estate has everything for them, it's ideal.

But it goes to show how important it is

to manage not just the roost and not just the wood next door

-but to manage the land over a pretty big area.

-That's right.

Well, these bats will travel 15-16 kilometres a night...

-Will they?

-..to feed, yeah.

So that's a big area of countryside you want to safeguard,

and they like to follow hedge lines, lines of trees, things like that.

So if you start losing the odd chunk of hedgerow here or there,

you're cutting them off from their foraging areas.

To see big, big bats close up like this, just above my head.

-Going around and around.

-Yeah, yeah, this has been...

It's been one of the best wildlife spectacles

I've seen in Wales, I think.

Of all of our great Welsh parks,

I think Stackpole here really does illustrate

the wealth and the power

that the aristocracy had in centuries gone by.

They have completely changed the landscape,

they've created this enormous lake, and by doing that

it means that we are now able to enjoy the wildlife

that's taken advantage of this new habitat.

This water is full of fish, some enormous pike in here,

also amphibians, the frogs and the toads and the newts.

And because of that, it's also an excellent place for otters.

It's actually, I think,

the best place in Wales for this shy animal.

And to be honest with you,

if I come down here now and don't see an otter,

I'm disappointed that's how good it is.

Each of my great Welsh parks is a haven for wildlife.

These wealthy families have left us a fantastic legacy.

We've been able to get up close to some wonderful animals,

and we've had some real surprises along the way.

-Oh!

-It's an otter!

But what's truly great about these parks

is they're open for all of us to explore.

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