PGW(C)68(FLT)

Halkyn Castle  

II  

01/02/2022  

Designated  

Flintshire  

Halkyn  

321304  

370834  

Gardens, Parks and Urban Spaces  

Terraced garden; informal woodland garden; walled garden; small landscape park  

1820s  

Halkyn Castle and its grounds are located on the immediate east side of Halkyn village. The grounds are registered for their historic interest as the setting for the romantic, picturesque mansion designed by John Buckler for the Earl Grosvenor. There is important group value with the Grade II* listed house and attached stable block (LB 17792), and two Grade II listed entrance lodges and gate piers. The park was probably laid out in the 1820s-30s and may have replaced a pre-existing layout. The north forecourt of the house is approached from the west, off the B5123, and from the east (a former drive) off a private road, where the park entrance is partly truncated by the modern A55. Each entrance has a castellated lodge designed by Buckler and surviving gate piers (LBs 26200-1 & 596). The park is an irregular area of open grassland, sloping to the north-east, bounded on all but the north side by deciduous woodland. In the middle is a large clump of deciduous trees. The north-east side of the open area is a narrow strip of woodland flanking the east drive. This stops where the garden begins, giving a view of the park from the garden. On the south side woodland merges with that of the garden, to the west of the house. Within it, south of the house, a former tree nursery or nursery garden. The gardens were probably laid out when the house was built, in about 1824-27, with additional planting throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. They are laid out on ground sloping to the east around the house as a large area of informal woodland, a small area of formal terraced garden, one small ornamental walled garden, and no kitchen garden. The old church and churchyard of St Mary's was engulfed on the east side of the woodland, and the church was removed slightly later. The ornamental woodland is laid out with winding rustic paths and stone steps, the house situated towards the southern end of the area which merges with the park woodland on the south. The mixed coniferous and deciduous woodland contains many ornamental trees. It is entered from the west drive at the north end of the garden. The drive winds through the woodland to the forecourt and around the east side merging with the east drive. Between the drive and the house is a raised gravel terrace surrounded by low stone walls, stone steps up to it. There is a similar terrace in front of the stable block. Below the terraces are sloping lawns, with a rectangular level area, formerly lawn tennis courts, cut into the slope at the south end. From the south terrace a path flanked by yew topiary leads through ornamental shrubs in woodland to a small rectangular walled garden adjacent with the nursery. Its long axis is north-west by south-east, with an apsidal south-east end, surrounded by walls about 1.5m-1.8 m high. Inside, the garden is laid out formally, with lawns flanked by small rose beds and box edging. The southern end is taken up with an apsidal arbour of yew hedging. Setting - Halkyn Castle and grounds are situated on the north-east-facing slopes of Halkyn Mountain, the wooded grounds providing a setting for the mansion. Significant views – From the south-east end of the house and terrace there are views across the park and the enclosed garden, and the countryside beyond. Source: Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd, 120-2 (ref: PGW(C)68).