PGW(Dy)21(CAM)

Llechdwnni  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Carmarthenshire  

Llandyfaelog  

242809  

210092  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Walled garden, including terrace and gazebos; formal pool.  

Seventeenth century  

Registered for its historic interest as an example of an unusual and early walled garden and formal pool, associated with one of the former most historic houses in the south of the county. The large garden has a long terrace, terminated at each end by projecting, round gazebos. Llechdwnni is located in the rolling hinterland north of Kidwelly, a short distance to the east of the Gwendraeth Fach valley. The present, Victorian, house lies on an ancient site and replaced an earlier house with seventeenth-century origins (Cadw LB: 14553; NPRN: 96505). There were once two drives from the road to the south. The main drive to the west side of the house has now gone, the secondary drive to the east side remains. The former garden is situated immediately to the west of both the old and present houses, but is associated with the old house. It lies on a slope rising westwards to a wide ridge top on the east flank of the Gwendraeth Fach valley. A small, square compartment to the north of the old house, bounded by banks and a low wall on the south side, probably a garden or orchard compartment, has now been reused. The garden is a large, square area of just over two acres surrounded by rubble stone walls internally faced with hand-made bricks. The interior is now grass. Walls are ruinous in places and are of variable height but rise to a maximum of about 3.5m high where best preserved. The top, west wall stands to its full height and is flanked internally by a terrace about 8m wide and 1.3m high on its east side. At each end of the terrace is a semi-circular projection beyond the north and south walls, belvederes or gazebos giving panoramic views of the countryside. The south-west one survives only as stone footings. On the inside of the north-west gazebo there is a raised platform, about 1.6m above the terrace, bounded by a 1.8m high curving stone wall of stone and brick. On the outside the circular wall stands to about 3.5m high. Beyond the west side of the garden, in the middle of what is now a field, is a rectangular pond, rush grown but clearly outlined. Placed centrally to the west wall of the garden, it was a garden feature with, at least in part, an ornamental function. The importance of this un-surveyed site lies in the formality of what are now fields and what were almost certainly originally the spaces of a large formal garden enclosure. Significant views: panoramic views of the countryside from the gazebos. Source: Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 40-2 (ref: PGW(Dy)21(CAM)).