Golden Grove (Gelli Aur) is located to the south-west of Llandeilo on the north-facing bluff of the Tywi valley. It was for a long time one of the most important estates in west Wales. It is notable for its park and gardens, which contain many ancient trees, for its quality formal terraces, and for an outstanding arboretum associated with the present, Victorian, mansion (nprn 17391). The walled garden is also of great interest in being associated with an earlier house to the north of the mansion (700065).

The gardens were developed to complement the mansion and all lie within extensive parkland (700064). To the south of the house are grass terraces, the arboretum, a pinetum and a fernery. The terraces were present by 1871. They are of varying width and height, following the curve of the drive and the slope of the ground so that they merge into the hillslope at the east and west ends, decreasing in length uphill. There are mature rhododendrons to the west and east. Steps lead up the terraces to a gravel path which connects to the circular walk through the arboretum, a semi-circular stone seat at the path junction.

The arboretum, of some 10.5 acres, is protected from deer by a perimeter wall-and-ditch ha-ha, the wall up to 1.5m high. Planting in the 1860s included western red cedar and western hemlock. In the north-eastern corner is a small fernery, a circular area entered through a narrow passage, with a rustic hexagonal summerhouse, or bark house, at its centre. South-east of the mansion was an unenclosed pinetum, now overgrown but with some fine specimen trees. A second hexagonal bark house lies within the wall of the domestic grounds.

North of the house lies the formal terraced garden. The terrace, dating from c.1830, was initially only behind the house and utility block but was extended west, behind the stable block, between 1854 and 1887. The terrace is retained by a wall up to 3m high with parapet, partly-buttressed on the east but less elaborate on the west. The two are linked by a small gate and a flight of steps. The east terrace is a grassy area with a central circular pond and fountain, flanked by circular beds with urns on pedestals. On the northern side, parallel to the retaining wall, a box hedge edges a narrow border within which is a line of clipped Irish yews. This area, known as `Lady Cawdor's Garden', was formerly laid out with paths and flower-beds now gone. At either end of the terrace are viewing bays; in the west one is a sundial. The west terrace has a central gravel path, flanked by grass and shrubs. On the north, the shrubs are retained in a border edged with slabs.

An older, formal walled garden originally lay around what is now the site of a demolished seventeenth-century mansion, about  0.5 km to the north of the present mansion (700065).

Sources:
Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 26-31 (ref: PGW(Dy)10(CAM)).
RCAHMW air photos: 955065/48-50

RCAHMW, 28 March 2022