In January 2025, Storm Éowyn brought down a cork oak tree at Mount Stewart on the Ards Peninsula. It was one of an estimated 10,000 trees lost across the estate that night, and one of the oldest cork oaks of its kind anywhere outside Portugal.
We learned what had happened a few months later, and the story of the tree only revealed itself slowly.
A seed brought back from a war
The tree at Mount Stewart was a Quercus suber, planted in 1812 from a seed brought to Northern Ireland by Brigadier General Sir Charles Stewart, later the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. Stewart had spent the previous three years in Portugal as adjutant to Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, fighting Napoleon’s army through what history would come to call the Peninsular War.
Stewart was 30 at the time, a dashing staff officer known in the family as “Fighting Charlie.” He was decorated by the Regent of Portugal with the Order of the Tower and Crown, and is preserved at the height of his Peninsular War career in Sir Thomas Lawrence’s portrait of him in Hussars uniform, which still hangs at Mount Stewart today. The cork oak, also from Portugal, was part of the same homecoming, alongside the Portuguese furniture he brought back to the house.
For over 200 years the tree stood in the gardens, supported by the unusual microclimate that has long made Mount Stewart one of the most remarkable gardens in these islands. It grew gnarled and eccentric, propped up at first with an iron strut and later preserved with a near invisible system of wire rigging. It quietly carried a connection between two countries that most visitors will have walked past without noticing.
A visit to Portugal
Earlier this year we were at the facilities of our Portuguese cork partner, the world’s largest cork producer, headquartered in Portugal. our Portuguese cork partner works with cork the way cork has always been worked, hand harvested from the bark of the tree, without felling, allowing the tree to regenerate over the next nine years.
We mentioned the Mount Stewart tree, expecting nothing more than a respectful nod to the loss. The response was immediate. our Portuguese cork partner wanted to help. Trees would be sent.
The full historical significance of the original tree, the Peninsular War connection, the 1812 planting, came to light only after the offer had already been made.
Two centuries on
The replacement saplings have now arrived in Northern Ireland. They are completing their quarantine, and subject to clearance they will be planted within the same gardens the original tree stood in.
It is, in one sense, a small story. A few young trees, one corner of one garden, one company in London helping connect a National Trust property to a forest in Portugal.
In another sense it is exactly the kind of story we keep finding ourselves in the middle of. Cork is a material with a long memory, and the people who work with it tend to as well.
We will share the planting day when it comes.