Summer Garden Visit 2019

For our garden visit this year, we went to Llanllyr in  Talsan, near Lampeter (SA48 8QB).  The house has a four-acre landscaped garden, which, although begun in 1830, was mostly restored and redeveloped in the 1980's and up to the present day, by Mrs Loveday Gee, who lives there with her family and husband, Robert Gee. 

It was a rainy day, with some heavy downpours that promised to go on until sunset, so we all took brollies and wellies, but as we arrived, at 5pm, the rain petered out and held off until we'd finished viewing. 

Perhaps the old nuns had taken pity on us and prayed for good weather, as around 1180 Lord Rhys ap Gruffydd established a Cistercian nunnery on this site. Mrs Gee, who took us around the gardens, explained both the planting she's done in the last 40 years, and the history of the house.

 By the way, Mrs Gee has written a very interesting book about Llanllyr, called A Very Small Corner of Paradise. The Gardening Club has purchased a copy, and it will be on loan to anyone who'd like to read it. Just let the Secretary (Nina) know.

The house and gardens was the subject of a major University of Wales Trinity Saint David research project. Archaeologists'  discoveries so far have led to important clues about how the nuns lived. They recovered fragments of sumptuous glazed floor tiles indicating that the nunnery was lavishly built and decorated.  It's possible the nuns first lived at Strata Florida - the ruins of which lie near Tregaron – a former Cistercian monastery which was of immense importance to Wales during the Middle Ages. The nuns then settled permanently at LLanlyr, where they farmed cattle, sheep and vegetables, tended an orchard and a stocked  fishpond and had their own grain mill, using the stream that now runs into the pond.

It's still not known who began the nunnery, but "llan" always means 'holy place' in some way and "Llyr' can be both a male and female name. The nunnery survived until the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII and the monastic estate passed to the Lloyd family.  It was  Morgan Lloyd, High Sheriff of Powys 4 who converted the nunnery into a dwelling in the 17th century. Sometime in the 18th century, the house gained a formal garden to the east, probably under the Lewes family, who purchased the property in 1720 and still own it today. In 1826 the Lloyd's house was rebuilt in fashionable Regency style, using stone from the old house. At the same time as the new house was erected a formal garden was laid out. 

In the late 1980s the garden was cleared and replanted by Mrs Gee, with a long, double flower border, a large shrub rose garden, a huge fishpond, bog garden, and the Italianate water garden, laid out along the line of a medieval culvert. There's a lovely shrubbery, with winding trail. The garden is full of unusual trees and shrubs, with an emphasis on plants requiring little maintenance. Featured plants include hardy geraniums, cyclamen, primulas, and hellebore, planted in a style best described as romantic.

 Outside the rose garden is a carved Celtic stone (see pictures at top of page), commemorating the gift of a plot of land to an Irish follower of St David around the year AD 600.  Llanllyr was named one of the finest large gardens in Wales in a 2004 poll organised by the television channel S4C. They celebrated this by creating a paved area, using an ancient Christian design seen in early churches. 

Rabbits not Welcome here

The trees have had some squirrel damage (rabbits are a problem too) as you can see from these pictures, and Mrs Gee has begun netting vulnerable plants. The choice of plants makes a stunningly beautiful landscape, but there's some little quirks to raise a smile, as well. 

Llanllyr has its own underground lake which supplies spring water for the family-run business, 'Source' - a bottling plant drawing award-winning pure spring water from the sustainably-managed land. (check out their facebook page).

Afterwards, we ate at the Vale Of Aeron Inn just outside Felinfach on the A482 (SA48 8AE), where we had a good chin-wag and enjoyed an evening meal.