Manorowen, a nineteenth-century house (nprn 22372), is located to the south-west of Fishguard and Goodwick. It is notable for the survival of its walled garden, believed to have originated in the late seventeenth century, with its unusually intricate layout and fine late eighteenth-century gazebo.

The gardens of Manorowen lie in two distinct areas, separated by the A487 road. To the west of the road lies the house, with a simple, informal garden in front of it (265240). On the east side of the road is the main, walled, garden. On plan the garden is roughly rectangular in shape, long axis east by west, with segmented walls giving it eight sides. It is bounded by the road on the west, by the old road to Goodwick and the churchyard on the south, by woodland and disused railway on the east, and by farmland on the north. It extends over 1.5 acres. The mortared rubble walls are largely intact and variable in height, maximum between 3m-3.5m high. The garden is entered by a doorway in the west wall through a slightly arched entrance near the north end, opposite the entrance to the house drive. There are also entrances in the north and south walls. 

The ground inside slopes down from north to south and west to east, the interior laid out in response to the slopes. At the west end is a grass terrace along the wall, the slope below planted with shrubs and in the middle a small pool. Below this slope the ground, except for the north side, levels out to a gentle slope towards the lowest east end. This area is largely laid out as lawn, with a few trees and a shrub border along the south side, and in the centre are three small formal, hedged, compartments; below them is a lawn planted with a few trees. A narrow path with a modern pergola runs east to a north-south path with a similar pergola. To the east another path, flanked by pairs of 1m high ornamental cast-iron pillars, runs downslope to steps down to the pond which lies on boggy ground at the east end of the garden.

The steep north side of the garden, at its east end, is a lawn planted with trees and shrubs through which a path winds west to a small revetted terrace at the top of the garden near the gazebo. Below it another terrace, known as the Bee Garden, is enclosed by low and high walls, maximum 2m-2.5m high. The south side is a low parapet above a high revetment wall against which are the now-derelict glasshouses. The interior, laid out to lawn, narrows on the west to a grass path towards the steps up to the gazebo which start just inside the entrance in the west wall. The gazebo is built on bedrock. It is square, single-storey, with a pyramidal slate roof and mortared rubble stone walls with window openings of which the north one is the largest. From it there is a panoramic view to Fishguard Bay.

Source:
Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 250-3 (ref: PGW(Dy)64(PEM)).

RCAHMW, 13 April 2022