Restoring Ada’s woodland landscapes

Ada in Porlock (AiP) has started an ambitious programme to restore parts of the Ashley Combe Woods adjoining the grand Italianate mansion where Ada Lovelace spent several months each year. 

In the 1830s and 1840s, Ada and her husband William King invested heavily in transforming the native woodland into a Picturesque arboretum, importing rare trees and shrubs from around the world – maritime pines, strawberry trees, cedars and larch.

They also built scenic drives through these woodlands, all the way west to the isolated thirteenth century St Beuno’s Church at Culbone, said to be the smallest parish church in England. 

Ada’s enjoyment of the landscape may have reflected the Romantic side of her nature, inherited from her father, Lord Byron. 

She also used the environment to pursue her intellectual inquiries, holding rigorous scientific discussions while walking through the woods with visitors, such as her collaborator in computing, Charles Babbage. Ada even named one of these paths the ‘Philosopher’s Walk’.

However, over the decades, these wonderful features fell into neglect, became overgrown and forgotten. But now, in collaboration with the site owners, the Exmoor National Park Authority, AiP has started to reveal and to restore Ada’s impressive woodland landscapes.

Teams of volunteers have started to remove invasive species, rediscovering hidden rockeries and pathways; they will soon be planting afresh some of those iconic trees once planted by Ada and William, to a hillside overlooking the site of the old mansion and across to Porlock Bay. 

Another team of volunteers has also started to restore the impressive dry-stone walls that line the scenic drives through the woodlands.