Penllergare Valley Woods, Swansea

We discovered this Historic Garden by chance when driving down to St Davids from Wiltshire and looking for a halfway break. 
The Victorian estate was previously the home of John Dillwyn Llewelyn the renowned horticulturist, pioneering photographer and astronomer and consists of over a hundred hectares of mixed woodland, two lakes, seven miles of peaceful woodland walks and over five hundred years of Welsh history. The site is also known for its spectacular waterfall on the River Llan, which meanders through the estate.
{ Wikipedia} John exploited the natural beauty of the site in his grand design to create a landscape planted with a rich variety of trees, shrubs and exotic plants. He erected one of the first purpose-built orchid houses in the kitchen gardens, from 1836, an observatory, around 1851-2, was built close to the mansion house, and experiments with an electrically powered boat (built before 1848 by John himself) were conducted on the Lower Lake.

Inspired by Henry Fox Talbot who was first cousin to John's wife, Emma, Llewelyn became an enthusiastic and accomplished photographer. With its lakes and waterfalls, panoramic vistas, secret places and horticultural and botanical riches, Penllergare provided a wide variety of subjects for his camera and his photographic images vividly evoke the Victorian era style. His son, Sir John Talbot Dillwyn Llewelyn, brought the gardens to their peak just before the Great War and he, like his father was a notable philanthropist and supporter of community activities.

During the second half of tghe 19th Century the Gardens fell into ruins but a Trust was formed in 2000 to restore the grounds and this continues today.