Introduction
Dunraven Park has the remains of a deer park. There is also a walled garden on the site of a former one dating from the 16th century, with later alterations to the internal layout. Features within it include an Edwardian summerhouse and a well-preserved 19th-century tower containing a banqueting room and ice-house.
The garden and parkland was developed through the 19th century, but the site is now rather bare. Traces of features still exist, including footings and collapsed structures. The house was demolished in 1962. A few steps and revetment walls survive.
- Visitor Access, Directions & Contacts
Telephone
01443 336000Website
http://www.cadw.wales.gov.uk/Access contact details
The park and gardens are open throughout the year. Entrance is free.
- History
The site had been an Iron Age hillfort, the outer ramparts of which were partly destroyed by the building of a house. This was the home of the Vaughan and Butler families. Around 1803, a castellated mansion was built on the site for Thomas Wyndham MP. The Wyndham family had owned the site since the 17th century.
There were multiple phases of alterations of the grounds. In 1803, when the house was built, garden improvements were also undertaken. Further changes were made in the 1850s and 1880s. Additions included new drives, lodges at the drive entrances, new planting in the park and the construction of a crenellated stone wall around the park. Some new paths were laid out in the 1840s. It is thought that some paths on the estate follow lines of the Iron Age ramparts.
- Associated People
- Features & Designations
Designations
CADW Register of Landscapes Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales
- Reference: PGW(Gm)4(GLA)
- Grade: II
Scheduled Ancient Monument
- Reference: Dunraven Castle hillfort (Gm 350)
Heritage Coast
- Reference: Glamorgan Heritage Coast
Features
- Mansion House (featured building)
- Description: The house was a castellated Gothic mansion on the site of an earlier building. It was demolished in 1962.
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- Park Wall
- Description: Deer park. The park is enclosed by a rubble-built stone wall.
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- Garden Wall
- Description: Watercolours of the 1770s show that the earlier walled garden was irregular in shape with uncrenallated walls. There were two low walls or banks at the east end of the walled garden. These may have supported terraces. The walled garden was re-modelled in 1803, on the site of the earlier structure. The glasshouses which were once on the site are now gone. The crenallated walls are intact, and the internal space is divided into three areas.
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- Garden Building
- Description: Laundry.
- Gatehouse
- Description: Castellated Gothic gatehouse.
- Drive
- Icehouse
- Description: The icehouse is in the east corner of the walled garden.
- Earthwork
- Description: Dunraven Castle hillfort.
- Pool
- Description: Stone circular pool.
- Pavilion
- Tower
- Description: Round stone tower with a crenellated top. This is situated in the south-east corner of the garden. The tower has an icehouse on the lower floor and a viewing room and banqueting room on the upper floor. The structure was renovated in the 1980s.
- Specimen Tree
- Description: Mature mulberry.
- Garden Terrace
- Description: Grassed terraces are still extant.
- Structure
- Description: Garden paths, edged with stones.
- Summerhouse
- Description: The structure has a red-tiled pitched roof. It stands on a terrace beneath the south-west wall.
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- Key Information
Type
Park
Purpose
Ornamental
Principal Building
Heritage Site
Survival
Part: standing remains
Hectares
90
Open to the public
Yes
- References
References
- CADW, {Register of Landscapes, Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Glamorgan} (Cardiff: CADW, 2000) 224 Register of Landscapes, Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales: Glamorgan
- Lloyd, T., {The lost houses of Wales} (SAVE Britain's Heritage, 1986) 92 The lost houses of Wales
- Newman, J., {The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan} (London: Penguin, 1995)574-5 The Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan
- Quin, William Henry Wyndham Earl of Dunraven {Dunraven Castle} (London: John Murray, 1926) Dunraven Castle, Glamorgan. Some notes on its history and association
- Hilary M. Thomas {Historic Gardens of the Vale of Glamorgan} (Welsh Historic Gardens Trust, 2007) 82 Historic Gardens of the Vale of Glamorgan