Sketty Hall (nprn 19973) and its grounds are located to the south-west of Swansea and now form part of Singleton Park (700373), the two having become incorporated in 1936. Sketty Hall lies at the north-west end of the park.

Hall and gardens lie at the north end of a large open lawn, mostly surrounded by trees and flanking woodland belts. Along the south side of the lawn, in woodland, a small canalised stream has been ornamented into a water garden, now partly within the the grounds of Singleton Hospital. Gardens lie to the north, west and south of the house, and were developed along with the house and its park. To the north, the ground is level, with the entrance drive cut into the slope. Its once formal Italianate character has now gone and this area is made up of informal plantings of trees and shrubs interspersed with small lawns, drives and car parks accessed by flights of steps.

West of the house is a lawn planted with specimen trees. In an informal area of trees and grass is a small, circular kiosk, originally the ‘Temple of the Winds’ (54124), and at the far west end of the grounds is a pond. The garden to the south of the house is dominated by the Italian Garden which lies below a paved terrace with box parterre on its outer side. The garden is laid out as a level, formal rectangle with a gravel surface and curving, symmetrical, box-edged beds, divided into four quarters by axial paths, and flanked along the east and west sides by stone bases for cylindrical columns. In the centre is a raised square area with marble columns. To the west is an informal area of evergreen shrubs within which is a pond ornamented with rockwork and a small island, fed by an ornamented water channel. To the south of the garden is a circular path and another to a low marble column.

The present gardens at Sketty Hall were developed in the period 1898-1910 by Richard Glyn Vivian. A disused walled kitchen garden, with eighteenth-century origins, lies to the north-east of the house.

Source:
Cadw 2000: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Glamorgan, 188-99 (ref: PGW(Gm)56(SWA)).

RCAHMW, 18 July 2022

Site Record

Sketty Hall Gardens, Swansea