Clyne park ornamental grounds, once part of the Vivian estate, are located on the neck of the Gower peninsula, to the south-west of Swansea (see NPRNs 700146-7 & 265686). The gardens around the house were, like the rest of the parkland and gardens, laid out and developed by William Graham Vivian and Admiral Walker Heneage-Vivian between 1860 and 1952. The kitchen garden dates from 1860 and is located to the west of Clyne Castle (18354). Much of the area has been redeveloped since the estate was broken up in the 1950s.
The garden lies on ground sloping to the east. It is bounded on the north and west by 4m high brick walls and on the east by a high, curving rubble stone wall with a blocked arched entrance.

A line of four glasshouses dating from 1880 runs down the slope against the north wall. They have wooden superstructures on brick bases, their back walls are wired and their ventilation systems are intact, but they are now disused and derelict. At the east end of the north wall is a small stone and brick bothy, with a brick chimney. This is a potting shed and boiler house, the disused boiler being sunken. The garden is now used as a plant nursery by the local authority.  

The kitchen garden is portrayed on the 1877 Ordnance Survey map. This shows no division in the walled area to the west of the house, with a lawn and wooded pleasure ground next to the house and a simply laid out kitchen garden to its west. This had perimeter and parallel north-south paths and two glasshouses against the west end of the north wall. There was a further one at the east end of the wall, near the house. None of these survive. The four glasshouses from the 1880s survive. An aerial photograph of 1919 shows these and two free-standing ones, one parallel to the existing ones and one at a slight angle, to the south-east. A further aerial photograph of 1956 shows the freestanding glasshouses gone and a simple layout of cross and perimeter paths. The western end of the ornamental gardens is shown as a vegetable area, possibly developed during the Second World War, with ranges of glasshouses at the west end, one against the wall. A university hall of residence was built on this site in 1968.

Sources:
Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan, 224-7 (ref: PGW(Gm)47(SWA)).
Ordnance Survey first-edition 25-inch map, sheet: Glamorgan XXIII.15

RCAHMW, 10 May 2022