The university campus is located above the town, its main entrance off the A487 road. The Penglais site was obtained for the university in a sequence of land purchases by benefactors in the period 1897-1946. Building began in the early 1960s and landscaping of the site was an integral part of its development. The whole campus is extensively landscaped with planting that has been carefully chosen to complement the modern buildings, to suit the sloping site, to tolerate the salt-laden air and to take advantage of the mild, seaside location. The proximity to the sea, facing the prevailing south-westerly winds, make the campus one of the most exposed in Britain and severely limits the choice of plant material.

The overall plan of the campus was established in 1965, buildings roughly grouped in several tiers down the slope. Both buildings and layout were influenced by ideas from Scandinavia, where buildings and landscape were being designed and integrated in a manner sensitive to the character of the site. Planting was mainly the responsibility of the Botany Department but the overall plan was guided by the landscape architect John Ingleby who advised the commissioned architects, the Percy Thomas Partnership. The design also features the work of Brenda Colvin (1963), on the slope above Pantycelyn Hall on the western edge of the campus, and is one of the very few of her designs to have survived.

Planting began soon after 1959, even before construction started, buildings were then inserted in spaces between. Planting is dense, no corner left unplanted, mainly with evergreen shrubs and conifers. From the earliest period of planting shelter belts, to keep out the salt-laden winds, were important. These now protect the site. The dominant tree species, planted mainly along the boundaries and flanking drives, is the pine. Planting has been used to screen buildings from one another, to enhance buildings and their settings, to screen car parks and other utilitarian areas and generally to create a very attractive environment. Under the direction of the Botany Department the planting of the campus became choice and varied, with an emphasis on South America and Australasia.

The foreground to many buildings is banks and mounds of greenery, both tall and low-growing. A wide variety of shrubs is grown but characteristic species include eleagnus, griselinia, ligustrum, hebe, heathers, olearia, phlomis, berberis, escallonia, and cascading planting of Cotoneaster microphyllus. Mixed holly and beech hedges (as also seen at Plas Penglais, NPRN 301589) are also characteristic.

The landscaping of the campus is regarded as of exceptional historic interest, one of the most important modern landscaping schemes in Wales.

(note: extensive banks of vegetation were removed by the university authorities in 2015-17).

Source:

Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 86, 89-90 (ref: PGW Dy47(CER)).

RCAHMW, 8 August 2018