Country Life
An extract from the Wales magazine.
Words by Shannon Connellan & Photographs by Andy Fraser
If you’d told me I’d be spending a crisp autumn Saturday morning surrounded by Victorian stone and bee-heavy flowers, studying emerald-winged moths and watching white swans corral their cygnets, rather than gorging on yet another must-stream TV show, I’d have eaten my proverbial hat before I visited Old-Lands. Yet here I was doing just that - feeling windswept and renewed.
Located in Monmouthshire, Old-Lands is run by Sam and Clare Bosanquet and has been in the family since 1801. It was revitalised by Sam’s parents in the 70s and started a new chapter in the last decade. An ecologist and photographer respectively, the pair now inspire a small, like-minded team to help rewild the estate’s ancient grasslands and worn-out guests, encouraging them to rethink their relationship to biodiversity and good ol’ fashioned muddy fun.
Centred around the elegant Dingestow Court, three unique, self-catering lodgings provide guests with a bewitching base from which to align themselves with Welsh country life. We ushered our books, boots and wolfhound into the cosy Wood Barn, the beautifully revitalised old workspace of the Gwent Wildlife Trust, which still has its headquarters at Old-Lands, working with the Bosanquets to reverse some of the wildflower species loss that happened in the 20th century. There’s also Stable Court, part of the west wing of the main house, and Horseshoes, the former stables.
You’ll better understand the property’s biodiversity during one of Sam’s nature walks. An expert on moss, lichen, liverworts, fungi, plants and birds - and friend to moths - Sam grew up in Dingestow Court, roaming its 200 acres of rolling meadows, studying the enormous variety of life here for 25 years. “I learnt my flowers and birds and butterflies wandering around the fields. So, to me, each field corner has memories: of whinchats on the edge of Cae Issa, the stonechats wintering near Caewern Triangle, finding adder’s-tongue fern in the bottom of the Lawn Meadow, sweeping for insects in Gramdîr’s swampy areas.”
If you’re inspired to begin your newfound career as a wildlife seeker, you’ll find a kit in your cottage with everything budding naturalists could desire: white-meshed nets for pond dipping, black-meshed nets for insect-catching, a magnifying glass, reference cards and plastic pots “for putting insects and other minibeasts in” for study. Should you get hungry during one of these missions, you’re encouraged to scrump apples from trees heaving with fruit. But don’t fill up too much, for there are spoils to be enjoyed from Old-Lands’ honesty shop, where shelves are filled with local produce amid a Dutch still life of a wooden table heaped with fruit and vegetables grown in the walled garden just metres away.
The Bosanquets have designed a clever way to draw guests to the property’s far reaches with a delightful activity known as letterboxing. Like a form of offline geocaching, it began on Dartmoor in 1854 when participants would leave visiting cards in bleak, lonely spots - of which Old-Lands is neither, but it’s still a treat. The puzzle trail involves following clues (with an illustrated map and compass) to track down ten hidden boxes containing pads of ink to plunge a triumphant stamp into and mark your victory on the map. One requires you to grab oars and make for the lake’s boathouse. Avoid the swans.
Apart from all this treasure hunting, slow living is everything at Old-Lands, which offers a chance to break from the frenetic norm and our impatient, results-driven tendencies. It’s also a reminder that life, like rewilding, is all about balance. While guests here have ample sprawling patches of lush lawn to laze about on, corridors of ancient grassland are left to thrive as a hiding place for insects, who in turn pollinate the wildflowers and attract hungry birds. Rewilding is a lengthy, meticulous process for fields, meadows and forests, but at Old-Lands you can easily achieve it for yourself in a few days. The rest, well, that’s underway too.