Glasfryn is located on the neck of the Llyn peninsula. It is a late-nineteenth century house with origins in the fifteenth century (nprn 26508). It is notable for its late eighteenth-century walled park with contemporary formal plantings of beeches, some of which survive. There are also historical associations with the Clough, Williams, Ellis and Greaves families which have passed down into current ownership.

A small park was laid out and walled in about 1790 when beeches around the circumference were also planted. Parkland is bounded on the north by woodland and the house complex, by a lake on the south, and elsewhere by farmland. The house was originally central to the park until changes were made in the mid nineteenth century and the bulk of the surviving parkland now lies to its south, overlooked from the south front where the wall takes the form of a ha-ha.

Much of the parkland is now pasture fields with scattered trees but some enclosures around the house have been used as a tree nursery. Parts of the original park have now been incorporated into the garden, and some of the land outside the wall has become parkland. The main landscape feature is Llyn Glasfryn, a natural lake outside the park wall, but the area between lake and wall has parkland character and perhaps already had before the wall was built. It is used both for sport (shooting) and pleasure (boating). Ffynnon Grasi, a dilapidated well surrounded by a wall, lies at the north-east corner of the lake (32212).

The house is approached from the south via a 1km drive from the main entrance with iron gates and a lodge. The drive crosses farmland and skirts the lake closely then leads on to a large courtyard on the north-west (rear) side of the house.

The garden area lies on the south front of the house (86376) and a walled garden to its north-east (700041).

Source: Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 200-204 (ref: PGW(Gd)24(GWY)).

RCAHMW, 17 February 2022

Site Record

Glasfryn Park, Llanaelhaearn