Pantasaph is a Roman Catholic complex of buildings to the immediate west of Holywell, comprising the church of St David's (nprn 12464) and a Franciscan friary (409623). The complex is situated on ground falling away gently to the south, the garden laid out on the hill which rises behind the friary to the north.

The hill was used for the creation of a dramatic set of Stations of the Cross representing Christ's journey to Calvary, linked by a rising zig-zag, rock-lined pathway with a Station at each turn, recesses for benches along the way. The path is accessed from below through a decorated, stone-arched entrance. Each station is marked by a tiny Gothic chapel containing a depiction of the particular station. The last, the fourteenth, is the Chapel of the Sepulchre, steps either side providing a view over the boundary wall to the Irish Sea; in the quarry below is a grotto to Our Lady of Lourdes. At the top the path widens out to form an apse-shaped space marking the site of Calvary.

The hillside was first planted when the garden was made in 1875-79. There are Scots pine and larch with an underplanting of cherry laurel, mahonia, and yew, and a ground cover of Vinca minor. Beech has been planted where the planting has thinned. The Calvary area is edged with Irish yew and the vista to the Chapel of the Sepulchre planted with Scots pine. The main drive to the Friary is lined with Sycamore and Irish yews, the paddocks either side have a perimeter planting of Scots pine.

Two kitchen gardens are sited either side of the approach to the Stations of the Cross path, bounded by low rubble limestone walls. That to the east contains the remains of a glasshouse and some fruit bushes, the one to the west is now a field.

Source:
Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd, 182-4 (ref: PGW(C)40).

RCAHMW, 16 June 2022