Llanllyr, an ancient site with a history dating back to 1180 with the foundation of a nunnery (nprn 400436), is situated on low-lying ground in the Aeron valley, about 0.5 km south of Talsarn. Gardens lie around the house (86798), the kitchen garden located to its immediate west, adjacent to the stable block. It was probably built in about 1830 when the present house was built, and the gardens and park laid out.
The garden is five-sided and orientated north-north-east by south-south-west. Unusually, the garden is mostly enclosed within well-preserved mud, or cob, walls, lime rendered. The walls stand to their full height of about 3.5m and are topped with pitched, overhanging roofs to maintain dryness. These walls are built on low stone footings.
The south wall has stone facing around the central door. The west wall was partly removed in the 1960s to make way for a modern farm building. The north wall is of mortared rubble stone but with a similar tiled top to the other walls. A few old pear trees grow against the wall. At its east end is a door into the coach house and stables, the south end of which forms the short fifth side of the garden.
The interior of the kitchen garden is partly overgrown, partly productive (in 2005). The western half has been redeveloped with buildings and hardstanding. Early maps show cross and perimeter paths and another north-south path in the east half; part of this path system remains. Old fruit trees flank them and some are espaliered. There were no glasshouses.
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.
Additional notes: D.K.Leighton