Llanllyr, an ancient site with a history dating back to 1180 with the foundation of a Cistercian nunnery (nprn 400436), is a substantial house situated on low-lying ground in the Aeron valley, about 0.5 km south of Talsarn (5654). The house and its gardens lie towards the north end of a small park which, along with its lodge and drives, was probably made soon after the new house was built, in about 1830.  

The park occupies a rectilinear area of level ground, which drains from south to north and east to west towards a small stream, the Afon Llan-Llyr, which runs north and then north-west along the west side of the park and gardens. The park is bounded on the east by the B4337 road, alongside a narrow belt of mixed trees and shrubs, on the south by a field boundary, on the west by a belt of deciduous woodland and by the gardens, and on the north by a green lane lined with old oaks, the original access to the medieval nunnery.

The park is divided into a few large pasture fields, dotted with some parkland trees including conifers, oaks, Japanese elm, and Huntingdon elms. There are two drives, both off the B4337. The present-day back drive is from an entrance flanked by a curved stone wall and a lodge, at the north end of the park. It runs southwards to the farm buildings and then eastwards to the stable yard and house. The main front drive runs eastwards across the park from a small forecourt on the north side of the house. To its south is a narrow area of trees planted towards the end of the twentieth century and a large mature pine tree. Near the boundary it turns south-eastwards, a modern stretch, to an entrance on the road in a small area of woodland. Originally it continued straight to the road, to an entrance flanked by splayed stone walls.

Just outside the south-west corner of the garden (86798), on the edge of the strip of woodland which bounds the west side of the park, is a small, ruined, cob building, probably utilitarian rather than ornamental. The woodland belt to the south is mostly of oak and ash; further north the belt widens and includes some beech and a few conifers.

Sources:

Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 130-4 (ref: PGW(Dy)28(CER).

Ordnance Survey first edition six-inch map: sheet Cardiganshire XXV.SE (1887); second edition 25-inch map XXV.12.

RCAHMW, 19 October 2020