Aberglasney House and Gardens

Spectacularly set in the beautiful Tywi valley of Carmarthenshire, Aberglasney House features one of the finest gardens in Wales. Aberglasney Gardens have been an inspiration to poets since 1477. The story of Aberglasney spans many centuries, but, the house's origins are still shrouded in obscurity…and the most surprising it that not a whole lot of people know it exists.

There is a huge amount of history on this garden and as we toured through it, was stunned at its beauty. The house was stunning too and it is still in the early stages of renovation. To them the gardens are the important part and they want all their efforts put into the garden. The house will evolve as time and money dictate. So for the time being, in the house, you go to a few rooms that are under restoration then you enter another room that you think will be the same but instead they have taken this room and made gardens out of it…the roof was off so why not make use of it until time changes things. It was like going into a secret garden that no one else knew about. A garden filled with ferns, palms, cycads, streptocarpus and orchids…stunning. It’s called the Ninfarium and developed in 2005 and derived from the famous garden at Ninfa in Rome. It now has a glass roof against old stone walls and windows, it was enchanting. As you moved around you were surprised with every turn.

Outside the Cloister Garden is such a gem, I doubt you will ever see anything quite like it because it was discovered in the late 1990’s that the parapet walkway was indeed a survivor of a style of garden architecture that is now found only in records of lost gardens. The upper and lower walled gardens are full of history with them first being developed to feed the family and household needed before the advent of refrigerators. The lower garden is now devided into vegetables and flowers for cutting but the upper garden has been transformed by Penelope Hobhouse. Now it sees evergreens, old and modern varieties of perennials, climbers and shrubs. You can look down on this garden as well for a view of the concentric ovals contained in a rectangular walled garden.

There is much to see and this is the type of garden then you must take your time in…it’s history demands it.

Written by  Donna Dawson.

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