Gloddaeth Hall (now St David’s College) is a modified sixteenth-century hall, once the seat of the Mostyn family (nprn 26514), located on the outskirts of Llandudno. It is set within parkland laid out on south-facing terrain around, but mostly to the north, south and west of, the Hall. The ground is steeply sloping with spectacular views across the countryside. The parkland is mostly woodland, the two main areas being the steep craggy limestone to the north of the house, and the level plain in front of it. Their straight and zigzag walks are part of the designed landscape and remain largely intact. The woods, first planted in the early eighteenth century, are chiefly composed of beech, lime, yew, chestnut and oak, and some of the existing trees may be survivors of the original plantings. A notable feature of the wood below the house was a statue of Hercules now relocated to the front lawn (32587).  

The steep slopes below the house are terraced to form gardens (406084). At the bottom of the hill the ground flattens out sharply where a canal was constructed, part of the garden design. Beyond is a rectangular apron of parkland - almost a large ornamental lawn, the foreground of the view from the house  -  on level ground, with plantations surrounding it on the three sides away from the house. This area is separated from the plantations to the north-east and south-east, and the fields to the south-west, by a ha-ha, a simple ditch. Further parkland beyond to north-east and south-west must have been in part obscured from the house once the plantations were mature, but the area to the south and west provided the setting for the various drives at different periods. A new drive, built between 1861 and 1889, replaced both pre-existing drives, being built between them: the south-west one, to Gloddaeth Lane, now an earthwork flanked by remnants of its avenue of trees; and the west drive, with its gates and lodges, which remains partly in use (25823, 26104 & 26228). On top of the hill behind the house is a large, roughly level area which may be the site of a maze, of uncertain date but likely nineteenth century.

Photographs and maps show that at different times various areas of park and  garden have been used for growing vegetable and arable crops. Earlier features may include the fishponds near the south corner of the terraced garden, and a probable seventeenth-century water tower which falls just within the park in the plantation behind the house.

Source:
Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 92-7 (ref: PGW(Gd)6(CON).

RCAHMW, 24 June 2022