Portmeirion, on the mouth of a small valley on the north side of the Traeth Bach estuary near Porthmadog, has well-preserved public and private village gardens designed in and around the village of Portmeirion by Clough Williams-Ellis, the architect of the village (nprn 28697). Local climatic conditions allow the growth of many half-hardy and tender plants which enhance the exotic character of the site.

The grounds and gardens were adapted from the older Gwyllt gardens, the informal pleasure ground attached to the Victorian house at Aber Iȃ (265160), an elaborate picturesque composition probably laid out in the middle of the nineteenth century. The garden occupies a roughly triangular area on the steep and rocky south of the peninsula, to the north of the mansion, now a hotel.
There are both public and private village gardens, and a woodland garden with walks, both of particular interest to plantsmen. The older Gwyllt garden contains an outstanding rhododendron collection of the early twentieth century.

The grounds were mainly constructed c.1850, and from 1925 onwards. 

RCAHMW, 10 June 2022