Colomendy Hall, an eighteenth-century house much altered during its life and rebuilt 1810-11 (nprn 27044), is located to the west of Mold, above the Alun valley. It is notable for the historical interest of its small late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century park and garden (700094), with its picturesque woodland walks, rockwork tunnel, and walled garden (700095), and for its association with the eighteenth-century artist Richard Wilson who spent the last year of his life here. It is now an outdoor education centre.

A small garden lies to the south of the house, with pleasure grounds to the west and north. The latter date from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In front of the house is an area of sloping lawn with some isolated low shrubs and clipped yews flanking a branch of the drive. Beyond is the mixed woodland knoll with some ornamental trees. The west end, near the house, is laid out with several winding contour paths climbing to the top of the hill. In some places they are built up over the slope, in others they are rock-cut, the steepest parts with rock-cut steps. Together with occasional rock outcrops they appear highly picturesque. On top of the knoll is a modern bird hide with stone footings of an earlier building nearby.

To the north and north-west are areas of screening woodland, isolated conifers, and open spaces with some outlying school buildings. A short path and shallow rustic stone steps lead through an ornamental gateway and on to the former central path of the walled kitchen garden (700095). Alongside its south wall is a sunken alleyway or walk, a filled and overgrown trench running west from its south-east corner. At the far end, at the south-west corner of the garden, is a short tunnel with a curving entrance and exit, and from it a fine view of Moel Fammau; the tunnel was perhaps a device for obscuring and then revealing the view dramatically. Along the west side of  the kitchen garden the Lilac Drive is lined on its outer side by a low wall with a steep drop below.

The small garden, added by 1871, is enclosed by a low wall and a hedge, laid out with an informal lawn and flowerbeds, a rockery, and with a central square pillar memorial to a dog, dated 1865.

Sources:
Cadw 1995: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Clwyd,  48-51 (ref: PGW(C)70(DEN)).
Google Maps (Infoterra) imagery (accessed 13.09.2021).

RCAHMW, 19 April 2022