Plas Brondanw, a restored, largely eighteenth-century house on a more ancient site (nprn 28667), is located above the east side of the floodplain of the Afon Glaslyn, north of Penrhyndeudraeth. The house, with its garden (301635), is set in parkland, the whole design reflecting the work of Clough Williams-Ellis. The park’s date is uncertain but is much older than the garden and may date to the seventeenth century, like the house.

The park is small, much longer than it is wide, aligned north-east by south-west, lying on a north-west-facing slope. It is sandwiched between two roads, the old road from Garreg to Croesor and the more recent A4085 which crosses reclaimed land to the north. In the seventeenth or early eighteenth century this road would not have existed so the park boundary would likely have been along the same line, edging estuary and marshland. The house adjoins the Croesor road, thus perched above the park, looking down over it to the mountain view beyond.

The main entrance is directly off the Croesor road, from the south. A gatehouse still guards this where it diverges from the Beddgelert road (28668). There is an older, northern, lodge opposite an entrance to the park, on the far side of the road and another, still called Gatws, on the Beddgelert road, farther north.

The park consists of pasture with specimen trees. There is also an area of woodland to the south which was probably more-or-less natural until included in the designed landscape by Williams-Ellis. The park seems to have been little altered apart from a slight reduction in size caused by the expansion of the garden. Many trees were planted, gates erected, pools and waterfalls designed in an old quarry, and a memorial to the house fire of 1951 was built here. A viewpoint tower on the open top of the hill was given to the Williams-Ellises as a wedding present (in 1915) by the officers of the Welsh Guards (410631).

Sources:
Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 262-7 (ref: PGW(Gd)30(GWY)).

RCAHMW, 16 May 2022

Site Record

Plas Brondanw Park, Penrhyndeudraeth