Penmaenuchaf - CADW Reg No. PGW (Gd) 37 (GWY) |
||
|
Some are grassy, such as the winding path down the bank below the house to the
drive, and some are gravelled, such as the walk along the south side of the
garden terraces, or the path leading from the viewing terrace into the area
west of the house (which is also stone edged). Some are disused and almost lost,
like the one which runs along the northern edge of the ponds and the old walk
along the viewing terrace.
There is a gravelled terrace around the house on the north and east, with what appears to have been a viewing terrace, now lawned, leading off this to the north-west, and the main terraced gardens are on the east. The latter post-date the change in the main approach, and may have been the reason for it. The terrace round the house and the viewing terrace are shown on the 1888 25 in. Ordnance Survey map, and are thus relatively early features. The main terraces were added around the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The main garden terraces are on two levels below the house terrace, with a walk above them along the edge of the lawn, on the south side of the terraces. They have retaining walls on the south and west and balustrades along the other sides, the balustrading is the same as that of the older terraces and is either copied from it or contemporary with it; the current balustrading replacing another edging on the older terraces. The upper main terrace is roughly rectangular, with a central path, borders round the edges, and lawns. There is no ballustrading or parapet between it and the lower terrace, the top of the retaining wall being flush with the upper terrace. The lower terrace is also more or less rectangular (both taper on the south side), but with the long axis at right angles to that of the upper terrace. It is gravelled (replacing slate paving), with a central circular pool and fountain surrounded by an arrangement of beds, and with a border along the west side. The walk along the edge of the lawn above the terraces was probably intended to give a view of them (it is shown on the same map on which they first appear, and is contemporary), but is on a slightly uncomfortable slope. It is now a fairly narrow gravel path with box edging and a border each side; a hedge separates the southern border from the lawn. It may have extended further to the east at one time, as there is some unevenness in the grass, but if so this has now been abandoned. South of the house, on the far side of the drive and forecourt, are two irregularly shaped ponds, or perhaps more accurately one pond divided by a causeway.
|
 Viewing terrace, now lawned, leading off to the north-west of Penmaenuchaf Hall and overlooking the Mawddach estuary. |
|
| « back [ history index ] | p.7 | next » |