Stackpole Estate - my first visit
A `must visit` place in Pembrokeshire is the NT Stackpole estate which has some of the most stunning coastal views to be found anywhere. It’s difficult to imagine the many buildings that may have graced the Stackpole Court site over the centuries. Occupied since Norman times, the Stackpole Estate has seen its fair share of boom and bust over the centuries. The Campbell's built the early Georgian mansion of Stackpole Court in the Palladian style in the 1730s on the site of the earlier fortified house. Two world wars heralded a century of decline at Stackpole. Half of the estate, around 6,000 acres, was requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence to form Castlemartin Range in 1938. Sir John Campbell II inherited the estate in 1777 and began landscaping work on a grand scale. What was once a valley was later flooded to create the Bosherston Lakes, as part of a designed landscape, and thousands of trees were planted. Thirteen years later, what was left of this historic estate ...