Llangybi Castle House, a late seventeenth-century house demolished in 1951 (nprn 45082), is located on the north side of the village of Llangybi, about 4km south of Usk. It lay within a medieval deer park (700383) a short distance to the east of Llangybi Castle (94896). The site is notable for the survival of a late seventeenth/early eighteenth century formal layout of terraces, walled garden and avenue associated with Llangybi Castle House.

Gardens lie to the west, south and east of the house site, to the west of the stables and kennels, and to the south of the track leading to Llangibby Castle. To the south and south-east of the house the site has been levelled into two rectangular earthwork terraces. To the east is a sloping grass area planted with ornamental trees and shrubs, and to the west is a natural grass slope bounded by a wall at its west end, and to its north a walled garden with all but its east wall standing. Above this, to its west, is a small area of formal beds on small terraces, and beyond that the wooded hill on which Llangibby Castle stands. The gardens are now derelict.

It is assumed that the gardens are contemporary with the late seventeenth to early eighteenth century rebuilding of the house. A map of 1758 refers to orchards, fishponds, garden, fir trees (to the west of the garden), and coneygre, but does not show them in any detail. In 1796 Williams (The History of Monmouthshire, p.294) states that 'the gardens or grounds ... are not assimilated with the country. They are formal, compared with those in England, by Kent, Brown and their disciples.’

The tithe map of 1838 shows the garden layout around the house (parcel 719) much as described above. By the time of the first-edition Ordnance Survey map (1880s), the garden was laid out with straight paths, with an orchard to the south and with the east boundary of the garden nearer to the house site than at present. The drive (now a track) took a straighter course from the stables to the house site than it does now. This would suggest that the eastern part of the garden, informally planted with specimen trees and shrubs (mainly rhododendrons) was created after the 1880s. Planting of trees and shrubs appears to have continued into the twentieth century: ornamental conifers and rhododendrons in particular have been planted on and below the terraces. The early six-inch O.S. map also shows the layout of the park including the drive, walks, gardens, parkland, woodland, orchards and the fine Scots pine avenue of Llangibby Walks to the east. The nearby motte-and-bailey castle (307862) is considered an outlier of the garden, as it was planted with ornamental trees and shrubs (probably in the nineteenth century) and Bradney (1921) records its flat top as having been used 'for many generations' as a bowling green. The ruins of the masonry castle to the west (94896) also seem to have been incorporated into the garden as a folly.

The disused walled garden lies immediately to the west of the house site. North, south and west stone walls remain, enclosing a rectangular area. As the house stood to the east there may never have been a wall on this side. There are round-arched doorways in the north and south walls. Above the west retaining wall of the garden is a small area laid out in shallow rectangular terraces, with brick-edged paths. At the south end of this area the south wall of the walled garden continues west for a short distance and there is a door in it leading to the area to the west of the pleasure garden.

Sources:
Cadw 1994: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Gwent, 73-74 (ref: PGW (Gt) 27).
Williams D, A History of Monmouthshire (1796), p.294, PL.XI.
Wessex Archaeology (2009) Llangibby Castle, near Usk, Monmouthshire Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment of Results
RCAHMW air photos: 945057/48-50.

RCAHMW, 20 July 2022

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