Bodnant is an outstanding garden in an extremely picturesque position and the best known garden in north Wales, containing important collections of plants, including many hybrids, especially of rhododendrons, raised at Bodnant. The gardens are attached to Bodnant House (nprn 26804) and set in parkland (700221). The garden has late eighteenth-century origins but was developed by Henry Pochin in the nineteenth century and further developed by the second Lord Aberconway, who designed and laid out formal terraces between 1905 and 1914. 

There are five terraces descending west from Milner's terrace on the steep slope west of the house.These are bounded by walls of grey granite and are connected by stone steps, luxuriantly planted with climbers and shrubs benefitting from the warmth and shelter of the walls. The Rose Terrace is paved, with rectangular island rose beds, and a long central path with a statue of Priapus at the south end. The lawned Croquet Terrace below (also ‘Bowling Green Terrace’) has a baroque fountain in the centre of the back wall. Steps down access the lawn of the Lily Terrace which supports a rectangular pool with a semicircular extension on the west, between two old cedars. The pool is fed by a narrow canal carrying water to it from a smaller pool in the middle of the back wall. The terrace is fronted by a curving yew hedge, its shape echoing that of the pool, and beyond this a grass walk. Flights of steps either side of the semicircular extension descend to the Lower Rose Terrace through trellis-work pergolas decorated with urns. Again, there are rectangular rose beds, a north-south path, and small lawns with borders. The lawned Canal Terrace below is the longest, with a north-south canal (also called the swimming pool) down the centre, a clipped yew hedge, and a long herbaceous border. At its south end is the Pin Mill (41168), an early eighteenth-century building from Woodchester, Gloucestershire, moved to Bodnant and reconstructed in 1938/9 as a pavilion. At the north end is a clipped yew theatre, with stage, wings and changing-room, flanked by statues.

The other major element of the garden is the Dell, based on Pochin's original plantings around a stream and artificial ponds. There is a Pinetum where the first exotic conifers were planted on the east bank of the stream from 1876, in a natural setting with water, rockeries, and a huge variety of trees and shrubs. Additional features include an elaborate wooden bridge across the Mill Pool above the waterfall, a laburnum arcade, a small geometric flower garden, and the Mausoleum (called 'The Poem', 23040), a rose bower, a double herbaceous border, and a rosery with several large beds. A second lake with boathouse and an artificial island lies at the southern end of the Dell, and at the north end a small circular ‘Rosemary Garden’ with viewpoint and a camellia hedge.

South of the house, and north-east of the Dell, are lawns dotted with plantings, shrub borders, fountains and pools. The lawn leads down to the west through a group of early beech plantings towards the rockery and dell, and is an ‘intermediate’ area linking the formal and 'wild' elements of the garden.

Sources:
Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 54-58 (ref: PGW(Gd)5(CON)).
Ordnance Survey six-inch maps: sheet Denbighshire VI.NW (editions of 1875, 1890 & 1913);
25-inch map of Caernarvonshire: sheet IX.9 (second edition of 1899).

RCAHMW, 7 June 2022