Nanteos (nprn 278), one of the most important eighteenth-century houses in west Wales, is situated in the Nant Paith valley, a few kilometres to the south-east of Aberystwyth. The mansion is set in a medium-sized landscape park located in the valley and the rising ground to its south where the park is bounded by the B4340 Aberystwyth to New Cross road.

The main approach to the house is via a long drive up the valley from the west, the entrance flanked by low stone walls and a lodge on the north side (279). The drive leads south-eastwards along the valley floor, then north-east to the house. A number of tracks to the north of the drive, and north and east of the house, are relict drives and a former public road. A former drive, now an unsurfaced track, runs eastwards from the entrance, parallel to and slightly above the present drive, the lodge set between them.

The main area of the park lies to the south, south-east and south-west of the house, and is bounded by belts of woodland on the north, west, and much of the east and south sides. The park and grounds are separated by a ha-ha and fence, beyond which open grassland falling gently to the Nant Paith which is canalised to the south of the house.
The open, unfenced grassland of the park is broken by informal belts of woodland and clumps. Prominent on and below the skyline in the south-east part are five beech clumps and the beech woodland of Coed Tyn-y-cwm on the far east. Running up the slope in the middle of the park is Target Covert. To its west is a ruined stone building, formerly a classical facade with blocked windows on either side of central arches: it was a classical eyecatcher, once a prominent feature in the park and from which there would have been fine views towards the house and down the Nant Paith valley to Pendinas and the sea. It was later reused as kennels (31525). Below Rookery Wood, in the west of the park, is the lake. Roughly oval in shape with an island, it is now overgrown, fed from its east end by a channel off the Nant Paith, originally with a weir and a cascade below it but now washed away. Two ruined boathouses on the south-west shore. North of the drive is Old Warren Hill, a prehistoric defended enclosure (303572), possibly later reused as a rabbit warren (24416), and a part of the Nanteos landscape.

The main phases of parkland development took place during the periods 1739-57, 1757-80, and 1830-34, with further improvements made 1862-7. Major changes to the landscape were planned in 1791, and again in 1814-1817, but neither scheme came to fruition. An important change occurred in around 1788 when the public road in front of the house was closed and replaced by the present B4340 to the south, thus opening up the whole of the area between the house and new road for use as parkland. By 1818 the park had taken on much of its present-day layout.

The house itself is surrounded by pleasure grounds and gardens (265018; 700215).

Sources:
Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 86, 89-90 (ref: PGW(Dy)47(CER)).
Ordnance Survey six-inch maps, sheet: Cardiganshire X.NW & X.NE (1886).

RCAHMW, 27 May 2022