Fonmon Castle, a building with twelfth-century origins (nprn 300300), is located to the west of Barry. It situated in parkland and grounds on the western lip of a steep ravine. (700191). Fonmon is notable for its walled, terraced and informal gardens (265829).

The kitchen garden, which is in full productive use, is on the north-west side of the castle. It occupies a rectangular area, long-axis roughly east-west, and bounded by stone walls up to 2.8m high on all sides except the south where it is hedged. It is divided into two unequal, interconnected, compartments by a north-south wall, which is the northwards continuation of the lawn revetment wall to the west of the house (265829).

The smaller, east, bay is is laid out with two north-south side gravel paths separating cultivation beds. An arched doorway leads to the service area on the south. Buildings along the inside north wall include a brick bothy, a glasshouse, and a brick-based vine house.
The main compartment to the west. This is laid out with four north-south gravel paths between which are two lawns with shrub and hedge borders (in 2020), with perimeter paths on the north and south. Two inserted doors in the north wall, with iron gates, lead to a track along the outside of the wall. A door at the south end of the east wall leads through to a small compartment of cold frames. The south side the garden is bounded by beech and box hedges, with an iron gate leading to the pool and lawn bounded by the lawn hedge. Another path on the east leads to a path to the house. 

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 25-inch map, sheet: Glamorgan L.1 (1877).
Additional notes: D.K.Leighton.

RCAHMW, 23 May 2022