PGW(Gd)28(GWY)

Glyn Cywarch  

II*  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Gwynedd  

Talsarnau  

260665  

333925  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Small semi-formal garden, walled kitchen garden, park and extensive woodland.  

Seventeenth and nineteenth centuries; twentieth-century plantings.  

Registered for its terraced garden contemporary with the fine early seventeenth-century manor house (built 1616) and gatehouse set in surrounding park and extensive woodland. An adjacent walled garden may also be contemporary in part. The grounds were developed further in the 1870s. The situation of the house and surrounding parkland takes full advantage of the natural scenery, which is enhanced by ornamental planting and can be enjoyed from a nineteenth-century lookout tower. Glyn Cywarch lies on the edge of the hills to the east of the Morfa Harlech plain, a few miles to the north-east of Harlech. It is situated towards the north-east end of the valley which forms the core of its park. The early seventeenth-century house (LB: 4778) lies on a fairly level site which allows it to look down the valley and also have a view to the west. The park lies in and around a steep, narrow valley orientated south-west/north-east and is more than half wooded. There are three drives, from the north, south-west and west, of which the first two are continuous, running past the yard in front of the gatehouse (LB: 4844). The unsurfaced west drive is much later, but had been made by 1900, and is likely to be contemporary with the restorations and improvements of the 1870s. The south-west drive, with lodge (dated 1878) at its entrance, runs north-east along the north-west side of the valley bottom for over 1 km, sometimes cut into the slope, partly planted with a row of mature beech trees, and flanked in places by rhododendrons and conifer plantations. It skirts the kitchen garden towards the far side of the forecourt by the gatehouse as it approaches the house. The north drive, now disused, leaves the road just south of the bridge over the Afon Glyn run eastwards and then to the south-west, skirting an area of woodland, north of the home farm. It is edged by a few specimen trees, including a huge ancient oak south-east of the gatehouse, and there are flanking plantings of rhododendron, laurel and box. On top of the ridge to the south-west of the house, in the edge of the woodland, is a stone-built, circular, look-out tower with viewing platform (LB: 83470) about 6m high which affords 360-degree panoramic views. The tower was erected in 1881 as part of the development of the estate in the late nineteenth-century. The parkland is divided into two separate areas: between the top of the ridge on the north-western side of the valley and the road, and to the east of the house. The management of these two areas is quite different. The former, which is much the larger area, is divided into roughly rectangular enclosures and is regularly ploughed; there are no trees dotted around it, and none are indicated on the 1900 map. There are, however, trees on the field boundaries and the road edge. The smaller eastern area is on a steeper slope, except for the northernmost part, by the Afon Glyn, which is rather boggy, and is used for grazing. There are specimen trees scattered over it, of several different sorts, both coniferous and deciduous. The wooded part of the park occupies the valley south-west of the garden, the steep slopes up both sides and much of the hillside away to the south-east. The part nearest the house is full of ornamental plantings and forms a backdrop to the garden, while much of the rest is now conifer plantation. The oldest part of the garden, contemporary with the house, consists of the terrace along the south-east front of the house (with later rockery), and the associated areas to the south-east of it, in particular a nearly square lawn. To the north-east, at a lower level, is the sub-square, lawned rose garden, probably also original, though with a more recent layout. In addition to the main part of the garden the small stream entering the garden from the park to the south-east, and flowing down its little valley opposite the gatehouse forecourt, has been dammed to create a series of small waterfalls, and there is an ornamental bridge and a rockery (possibly later), together with plantings of trees and shrubs. This seems likely to have been done in the later nineteenth-century, but it could be earlier if the rockery is not contemporary. The stream runs under the courtyard and most of the rose garden and reappears at its north-east corner. To the south-west is the walled kitchen garden (LB: 83474) which may also be early, though possibly not at its present size. It is divided into four sections and contains a range of borders. Also, there is a row of espalier apple trees, some of which are ancient, and an avenue of pleached limes, the dominant feature of the garden; its south-west end is crossed by a single row of similar limes terminating the avenue. The garden contains several buildings, grouped around the east corner. To the south-west of the house is an orchard and, beyond it, a pheasantry. A glasshouse area shown on the 1900 25-in Ordnance Survey map, also survives in part. Significant Views: View from the house looking down the valley across the park. Views west towards the flat, coastal landscape at Morfa Harlech. The view from the tower and viewing platform is panoramic and magnificent - to the south Harlech castle is visible over the woodland; to the east and north the woods clothe the valley side and hill slopes; to the west and north-west what is potentially the best view, over the park to the sea and the Dwyryd estuary, with the hills of Llyn beyond. Source: Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 218-23 (ref: PGW(Gd)28(GWY).