Fonmon Castle, a building with twelfth-century origins (nprn 300300), is situated on the western lip of a steep ravine below the gardens and castle in which the Fonmon Brook runs northwards to join the Kenson river. The estate is notable for its walled, terraced and informal gardens form an attractive setting (265829; 700192).
There appears to have been little parkland at Fonmon. A field and some walled paddocks to the north (of likely seventeenth-century date), woodland in the valley to the east, and a long straight ha-ha, now within the gardens, running southwards from the stable block, indicating that the large field to the west was probably considered parkland from the later eighteenth century when the ha-ha was probably made.
The grounds are entered from the south, reached by a narrow lane from the hamlet of Fonmon, crossing a bridge over the B4205 which isolates the southern end of the grounds from the rest. The entrance is flanked by square stone piers and pine trees, a former lodge to the east (19658). The drive then runs to the house through the gardens (265829).
North of the house and gardens is a partitioned, trapezoidal, pasture field partly enclosed with rubble stone walls, flanked on the north and east sides by woodland, with buildings (or their remains) in the far north-west and north-east corners. The far north-east paddock has now been developed as part of the gardens. To the south-east is a former orchard, labelled as such on the 1840 tithe map. Although planted with conifers it still contains some old fruit trees.
The wooded valley of the Fonmon Brook, which runs south-north, is largely semi-natural deciduous woodland, with some ornamental planting below the gardens which may may have begun before 1828. This area considered woodland grounds rather than parkland. There is at least one path leading into the woodland from the gardens, now rather overgrown, and there may originally have been more.
Sources:
Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan, 240-44 (ref: PGW(Gm)39(GLA)).
Ordnance Survey first-edition six-inch map, sheet: Glamorgan L (1877).
Additional notes: D.K.Leighton.
RCAHMW, 23 May 2022