Picton Castle (nprn 103578), with origins as a towered hall-house of c.1300, is located 6km east of Haverfordwest. It is notable for the survival of features of its eighteenth-century designed park and garden landscape, set within the fine rolling Pembrokeshire countryside, and which was extant in the eighteenth century.

The park lies mostly to the north and east of the house (700143). Around the house are the gardens and grounds.
West of the castle is the well-preserved rectangular walled garden, still in use, which had both pleasure and utilitarian use. A walled garden was present west of the house in 1773 and elements of it may be included in the present configuration present by 1829. It is rectangular on plan, long axis north-east by south-west, measuring about 286m by 142m. It is bounded by walls of stone and brick except the east side which is formed by cast-iron railings and where the entrance is located. South of the garden are the ruins of a brick peach house, and to the north the former boiler house and potting sheds. Extensive glass along the northern and western walls portrayed on late nineteenth-century maps has now mostly gone, though brick bases remain. The Peach House against the southern side of the south-west wall survives. Water features, including a fountain, are also present.

Around the house are the informal grounds , ‘The Lawns’. These include areas of woodland with exotic plantings and walks, the west and south drives and, south of the house, a lawn and field bounded by a ha-ha. West of the lawn is a stream valley with further exotic plantings, informal ponds and two ice houses (405510). To its east is the former stable block (now offices) and adjacent on the south the large former kitchen garden, now mostly developed into farm buildings. The grounds still contain some fine exotics, including many hybrid rhododendron.

Source:
Cadw 2002: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire, 278-86 (ref: PGW(Dy)42(PEM)).

RCAHMW, 9 May 2022

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