Welcome to the park and gardens at Nanhoron.
The park and gardens that you see today were originally laid out in the second half of the 18th century. The layout of the landscape with its park running down to the lake follows the classic eighteenth century plan, looking out from the house to the landscape and capturing nature as the view.
The building of the present house, designed by Joseph Bromfield of Shrewsbury in 1797, was completed by 1803, and at this time the East Garden became the kitchen garden, and the West Garden devoted to flowers and shrubs. The Woodland Walk through Coed Nant-yr-Ala remains as it was more than two hundred years ago.
Park & Gardens
The gardens at Nanhoron are open by appointment (01758 730 610). The admission charge is £4.50 per head (children free) with all the money raised going to charity. Group visits (10 people or more) incur a minimum charge of £50 with a non-returnable deposit of £25 to secure the booking. This includes a conducted tour of the garden with Mrs Harden. Arrangements can be made for tea to be provided.
"Being a walker this place provided me with the combination of hills, coastal walks and a lovely woodland walk right here on the doorstep. Don’t make the mistake I did and leave until the last day to discover it!"
Hazel [Edinburgh]
"Fantastic to come to holiday house that has been loved over the years – often they feel orphaned and uncared for; the Hen Dy is quite the opposite. And an unexpected delight to be on top of the garden, so full of treasures.
Rachel, Piers, Alexander & Catherine [London]
The West Garden contains many fine azaleas and rhododendrons. In recent years the Long Border has been revived and replanted with yew buttresses dividing it into compartments and the pergola round the pool carries wisteria and roses. This pool was extended to form a rill and water feature at the beginning of 2006. Work on a garden of this size inevitably never ends, so visitors are always bound to see some works in progress.
The West Garden
The East Garden is laid out as a nineteenth-century kitchen garden. The paths have been re-laid, restoring the old quadrants of the garden, box hedges replanted, a Rose Walk created, the old orchard revived and a crab-apple orchard created. The glasshouse shelters for four varieties of table grapes. In front of it is a herb garden on the site of old cold frames.
The East Garden
The Woodland Walk Rhododendrons were first planted from Bodnant in the 1930s, but by the 1950s much had returned to nature. The principal plantings of camellia, azalea and rhododendron date from the 50s, while some of the mature trees are as old as the walk itself, with some specimen conifers planted as a Pinetum in the 1860s. The best time of the year to see the Woodland Walk is in the late Spring when the ground is covered with drifts of bluebells. Within the Walk there are rides and paths, the Dogs’ Graveyard, a ruined Cold Bath and the remnants of an eighteenth-century Fernery and Grotto. New work is in hand with the planting and creation of new paths and glades in the Dingle at the end of the Woodland Walk.
