Grounds and gardens associated with Penrhyn Old Hall (NPRN 16691).

1. This garden is depicted on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25-inch map of Caernarvonshire V, sheet 2 (1900). Its main elements on that map include formal garden and sundial. C.H. Nicholas, RCAHMW, 10th August 2006.

2. Penrhyn Hall is a sixteenth century house incorporating earlier fabric. It is set at the foot of higher, craggy ground on the north-west and overlooks level ground to the south-east. The changing environs are depicted on early editions of the OS County series (Caernarvon. V.2 1871, 1900, 1913, 1937).
The house declined into a farmhouse from the eighteenth century and was only revived as a gentleman's residence in about 1900. As a consequence of this there are few, if any, early garden features and few more recent ones. The site is now biscected by Penrhyn Old Road, which runs through the former farmyard (NPRN 31422), and what were open fields to the south are now built up or occupied by caravans. Behind the house are old limestone quarries and a disused limekiln.
A track leading north from the hall was formalised as a drive in the early twentieth century. A new lodge was built at the north end (NPRN 16604) and an existing building was adapted as a second lodge at the south end (NPRN 16855). These both have stone mullioned windows in imitation of the Hall, as does an estate cottage(?), Pen-y-Gaer (NPRN 16719), situated to the south-west in Penrhyn-Side.
A relatively small garden on the south-west side of the hall, which featured two sundials in 1913 & 1937, may originally have been the farmhouse garden.

John Wiles 06.06.07