Plas Nanteos (nprn 278) is situated in the Nant Paith valley, a few kilometres to the south-east of Aberystwyth. It is one of the best examples of a contemporary survivor from the Georgian period in the Principality, retaining some of the most important of its estate features from the early eighteenth century. The mansion is set in a medium-sized landscape park (700214).
The pleasure grounds lie around the house, to its south and south-east but mostly in an elongated area to its south-west, on rising ground above the floor of the valley. Their development went hand in hand with that of the park. The layout shown in a survey of 1818, with some of its nineteenth-century planting, has survived to the present day.

The grounds fall into three distinct areas. To the south of the forecourt and drive is a lawn, partly a disused croquet lawn, sloping gently down to the park boundary. It is divided from the park by a ha-ha and fence, beyond which open grassland falling gently to the Nant Paith which is canalised to the south of the house. To the south-east of the house is a further lawn, known as 'the shrubbery', informally planted with fine specimen trees, including cedar of Lebanon and Ginkgo biloba, backed on the north by the kitchen garden (700215) and on the south by the ha-ha. Near the north-west corner is an oval mound, topped by two large fallen mulberry trees, with pets’ gravestones set upright around its edge. The stones were once scattered throughout the shrubbery. A former path, which winds through the area, is visible in the turf.
The third area is to the west and south-west of the house, a long strip of ornamental woodland between the present drive and the former drive above it. Between the two is an unsurfaced, contoured walk, Lovers’ Walk, which runs from the east edge of the wood, just to the west of the house, almost as far as the lodge (279) which sits between the drives. A branch walk drops down to the drive opposite the lake in the park. The woodland is mostly beech, oak and sycamore, with an understorey of laurel, Portugal laurel, rhododendron and other shrubs. Notable mature trees flanking the walk include limes, sweet chestnut, Douglas fir, and wellingtonia.   

Sources:
Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 86, 89-90 (ref: PGW(Dy)47(CER)).
Ordnance Survey six-inch maps, sheet: Cardiganshire X.NW & X.NE (1886).
Additional notes: C.S.Briggs.

RCAHMW, 2 June 2022