Fairyhill, a substantial gentry house of the eighteenth century (nprn 18637), lies to the north-west of the village of Reynoldston, on level ground on the east side of the valley of the Burry Pill, which runs south-north within a small landscape park (700201).
The garden and immediate grounds lie to the south, west and north-west of the house and were probably developed alongside the park, from the second half of eighteenth century and during the 1830s-50s. The gardens form two main components: the garden to the south of the house and the woodland grounds in the valley to the west and north-west.

To the south of the house is a level terrace, bounded on the west by a low stone and brick revetment wall. A gravel path runs parallel to the house, and off it a flight of steps down to a path into the woodland grounds. To the south of the main path the lawn extends south, dropping down to a levelled croquet or tennis lawn. The lawn is bounded on the south by the ha-ha, and to the east by a belt of mixed trees along the garden boundary. These include mixed decidious trees and conifers with a fringe of rhododendron. The west side of the lawn is similarly planted though formerly these were lone trees, clumps and narrow belts, now subsumed. A tongue of evergreen oak, pine and beech trees extends southwards along the edge of the lawn.

The second main garden area is the wooded grounds in the valley to the west of the house. The slope down to the valley floor is wooded with a mixture of mature trees, mainly beech, evergreen oak, sweet chestnut and Scots pine. Gravel paths lead southwards to the ha-ha, where a modern bridge crosses into the park, and another winds through the woodland down to the valley floor. The stream and its environs have been landscaped into ornamental water gardens, now mostly ruinous. Dams, a diversionary channel, bridges and two islands were created. Near the south end of the grounds a small, roughly rectangular stone structure is also ruinous. Plantings include ornamental trees and shrubs. A modern track runs north through woodland along the east side of the stream towards the north end of the kitchen garden, which lies to the east (700202). A modern bridge carries the track over the stream to a grass walk around a linear pond close to the stream, to its west. The pond is reed-fringed, ornamented with islands, with willow and alder on its banks and backed on the west by large pine trees. The ground to the east of the pond and stream slopes up gently and is largely grassed, with a few ornamental trees.

Sources:
Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan, 224-7 (ref: PGW(Gm)28(CDF)).
Ordnance Survey First Edition six-inch map, sheet: Glamorgan XXII (1878); second-edition 25-inch maps, sheets: Glamorgan XXII.9 & 13.

RCAHMW, 24 May 2022