Bodowen is located in the south-west of Anglesey. It is an estate with medieval origins and lies adjacent to the Bodorgan estate (nprn 700172). The last Bodowen mansion was built in 1615, located to the south-east of the present Bodowen farmhouse. Demolished in 1829, its lands were gradually absorbed by the Bodorgan estate and the two became a single unit. In the process, various changes, including tree planting, were instigated in the surrounding parkland with the aim of blurring the boundary between the two estates. A relict garden survives to the south-east of the present farmhouse (700171).

Bodowen had two parks, one large, one small; historically ‘Park’ and ‘Park bach’, together froming a rectangular area aligned north-east by south-west. The north end of the larger lies on the ridge top about 1 km to the west of the house and garden. It occupies a roughly rectangular area of ground falling away south-west from here to the shore which is indented with three sandy bays and rocky headlands. Elsewhere, the park is bounded on its north-west and south-east sides by stone walls, and on the east by a wall now gone. The north-west wall is well-preserved (possibly rebuilt), mostly about 2m high, its line following the rolling contours. At the north corner of the park it makes a dog-leg turn.

The south-east wall is low and ruinous. It begins, at its west end, at the top of the cliff on the south side of Porth Gro, also the start of the boundary wall of the smaller park which occupies the headland of Twyn-y-parc (the site of  an Iron Age promontory fort, 93864). The south-east boundary of the larger park, about 1km long, leads north-eastwards from here but is discontinuous. Further north a ditch develops on the west side of the boundary and leads to a bog and small ponds. North-eastwards, towards a rocky outcrop, is the small building known as the Fish House (525402). Most of the park interiors are tussocky grass with some rocky outcrops on the higher ground. A modern conifer plantation runs along the east side of the larger park.

A deer park is known to have existed at Bodowen in the seventeenth century; both park enclosures were probably used for deer. By the later nineteenth century the larger park appears to have been managed for rabbits (Bodowen Warren (1891) or ‘Cwningar Bodowen’).
There were two drives approaching the house; the main one from the north, the other from the west.

Source:
Cadw Historic Assets Database (ref: PGW(Gd)65(ANG)).

RCAHMW, 17 May 2022