Gloddaeth Hall (nprn 26514), now a school, once the seat of the Mostyn family, is set in a parkland landscape. A run of garden terraces below the Hall, dating from the seventeenth century onwards, is part of a broader landscape scheme (86379).

The terraces look out across a broad lawn bounded by woods on the south-east side of the Hall. There are three main parts:
1. The broad middle terrace is thought to have been established in the later seventeenth century. A doorway in its north-east wall (26515) bears the date 1680. A similar doorway in the south-west wall (26518) is thought to be early eighteenth century. The south-east retaining wall (26521) has some ornamental(?) guns and gun emplacements. The terrace is divided into two or three lesser terraces and these were lawned with gravelled paths.
2. The lower terraces are depicted in an engraving of 1792. They are bounded by walls on the south-west (NPRN 26519) and north-east (26520). At various times these may have been kitchen gardens and ornamental garden areas. There is a long pond or canal, blow the terrace.
3. The upper terrace was established in the later nineteenth century. Its retaining wall (26517) features both rough embattled and ashlar capping.

At the foot of the terraces is a canal, an element in the garden’s design but also functioning as a stockproof barrier. It has apsidal ends and vertical sides and still holds water. There was once a small boat house near the south-west end, and steps down to the water are still visible. The canal appears on maps from the 1840s onwards. Other notable garden features include the Rose Garden, beyond the north-east end of the main terrace, a Victorian rockery, complete with grotto and water feature, and a formal box parterre in the small raised courtyard under the windows of the hall.

Sources:
Cadw 1998: Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Conwy, Gwynedd & the Isle of Anglesey, 92-7 (ref: PGW(Gd)6(CON).

RCAHMW, 24 June 2022

Site Record

Gloddaeth Hall Garden Terraces, Llandudno