Kitchen garden wall and attached outbuildings

Cadw's description

Location

Located off the north side of the driveway from Port Lodge to Penrhyn Castle within mixed coniferous/deciduous plantation.

History

This kitchen garden first seems to have been established in the second half of the C19 to replace the old kitchen garden on the site of the flower garden nearer the castle, probably at the instigation of Walter Speed, who began his 58-year reign as head gardener to the estate in 1863. Covering over 6 acres ((2.5ha) in all, it appears that the southern part (the part now forming the garden to Penrhyn) may be the earliest. By 1889 the main part of the garden to the north had been divided into 6 unequal areas, an arrangement still discernible today. No longer in use for the large-scale production of fruit and vegetables, the garden is now put to a variety of purposes, including a yard for the estate's forestry department, a conifer nursery and partly as private gardens for the adjoining houses.

Exterior

Garden walls and attached outbuildings to large, slightly skewed square-shaped kitchen garden measuring approximately 120mx120m with further irregularly-shaped area on the south. Stone east wall of the main part is c4.5m high, the stone west wall a little higher with slate coping; main entrance with lower stone piers is on this side. North wall also of stone is about 5m high, while south wall of roughly the same height has a series of brick and slate-roofed outbuildings attached to its northern side, those at the east end appearing to be earlier than the rest. Several internal walls remain including part of an unusual fruit wall along the south side of 2 of the northern sections: this is about 2m high and made of thin slate slabs slotted into metal uprights. The wall of the irregularly-shaped southern section is also of stone, lined with brick on the north and west, to a maximum height of 2m, with slate coping; modern gateway on south with wrought-iron gates forms the entrance to Penrhyn. Although much altered, lean-to brick and stone outbuildings survive on the outside of the west wall of the main garden, to both north and south of the main entrance.

Reason for designation

Included as well-preserved boundary wall and outbuildings associated with the former kitchen garden of Penrhyn Castle; strong group value with adjoining structures.