Orielton (now Orielton Field Centre) is a much-modified seventeenth-century house on a more ancient site located about 3km west of Pembroke (nprn 22512). It is notable for the survival of parkland around the house which was extant in the early nineteenth century but which has earlier origins.

The present Orielton is the re-modelled third mansion and lies roughly central to the park. It is approached from the north off a minor road at the now main entrance from North Lodge (22514). Other drives (now mostly farm tracks) used to link the house with West Lodge, and its surviving gate piers; the lodge at East Orielton Farm; a lodge adjacent to West Orielton Farm; East Lodge (22513); and with Rose Lodge to the north-east of the park boundary.

The park mostly occupies gentle south-facing slopes of undulating land. It forms a rectangular area bounded on the north and north-west by public roads, on the east by the access road to East Orielton Farm, and elsewhere by access tracks and field boundaries. The wall on the south boundary may date from the time of the first mansion in the first half of the seventeenth century. Substantial blocks and belts of woodland line much of the boundary, and the configuration of woodland is much as it was in the later nineteenth century. The remaining parkland is given over to farming. Plantations and the gardens lie east of the mansion; walls, ha-has and drives separate these areas.

Within the park three ornamental lakes present in the mid nineteenth century, to the east of the house, are now largely silted and invaded by ground vegetation. The southernmost, and largest (the ‘Lily Pond’), is still recognisable. The fishpond, a rare decoy lake for wintering ducks, lies north-west of the mansion. A rare survival, it was once more extensive and had an island. It is retained by a substantial earthen dam to the west at the southern end of which a sluice links to an overflow stream to the Mill Pond (probably post 1840) to the west. The area between the house and the lily pond, once rolling lawn, is now enclosed pasture.

On the highest point of the park, on its south boundary, is a tall, three-storeyed, roofless tower (22609). It may date from the time of the second mansion, in the mid seventeenth century, built originally as a banqueting house and belvedere, or gazebo, possibly on the remains of a pre-existing lookout tower. In addition to plantations and woodlands, there are the remains of various gardens (265869), and a walled garden (700068). Additionally, Dry Burrows, a Bronze Age cemetery, lies on the western margins of the park (108772). 

Sources:
Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 262-6 (ref: PGW(Dy)38(PEM).
Ordnance Survey first & second-edition 25-inch maps: sheets Pembrokeshire XXXIX.16 & XLII.4 (1861 & 1906).

RCAHMW, 31 March 2022