Plas Yn Rhiw - A Hidden Welsh Garden

Tucked away at the very edge of Wales is a magical garden, hidden from the road and nestling amongst the trees.  It’s very easy to miss this special place because, at first glance, it looks like another viewpoint over the sweeping Porth Neigwl - Hell’s Mouth Bay.  However, if you take the time to look carefully, and stray from the road, you will find the Manor House of Plas Yn Rhiw and its stunning garden.

I have missed this garden many times when taking the road to Aberdaron and so when I stumbled on it, whilst Winter reading, I knew that it was somewhere I had to visit in the Spring.  I read lots about the garden before my visit, but no amount of reading could prepare me for the beauty I encountered in person, nor it’s remarkable inhabitants, who have their own unique story. 

Plas Yn Rhiw is a place of mystery, legend, and the strength of character of the three Keating sisters, Eileen, Lorna and Honora.  Not only did these three sisters save the building which was in a dreadful state of repair, but they also restored the garden and campaigned tirelessly to save the environment eventually leaving the house and surrounding land to the National Trust.

Encouraged by Clough Williams - Ellis, the architect of Portmeirion fame, the sisters bought the property in 1939 and the youngest sister, Honura, was the driving force in the garden restoration.  Honura had an artist's vision, having studied at the Slade School of Art in London but she was also prepared to learn from experts - there are gardening journals on bookcases in one of the bedrooms of the house to this day and correspondence with others involved in gardening.  Unfortunately no detailed notes of progress in the garden, over the years,  have been found.

I approached the garden via a small wooden gate from which a grassy path led through trees towards the house itself.  To the right I could glimpse the sea through the treetops below me, this was a sea with swirling mists and waves that could stir up emotions.  To the left I was aware of the house, but it wasn’t in full view and so there was a sense of excitement, mixed with foreboding because I felt that this could be a wind-swept place with extremes of weather and a somewhat difficult, but exciting, place to live. 

At the end of the grassy path, you reach a road and a gateway into the garden.  This is a garden of many different parts which enfold and delight as you wander through it.  To the right of the house is a derelict building with open windows, missing both frames and glass, which look out to sea.   Here there are cobble stones and ferns with Hedera (Ivy) clinging to the old stone walls, as well as a very old Wisteria, and if you pause for a moment, you can sense time stood still.  It's a place where human habitation is long gone, and plant life is slowly establishing to take its place.

There are several different parts to the garden - close to the house the garden is divided with a series of Buxus hedges which are surrounded with gravel and grass paths.  Further away, the garden leads into Woodland and Orchards but there is always something new to capture the imagination and surprise as you wander between a series of interconnecting parts of the garden.  From time to time, your eye is drawn back to the house which dominates the space or out to the sea.

Many of the trees and shrubs have been here for years and are now mature and stunning to see.  There are Rhododendron, Azalea and Fuschias as well as a beautiful Magnolia Tree.  The Magnolia was planted by Honura and is one of the few plants she documented on paper - noting how amazingly it had bloomed once established in the garden.  This is the Magnolia campbellii subsp. mollicomata and it was gifted to the sisters by the famous Welsh Garden - Bodnant near Conwy.

By the derelict building is a small grass lawn with the most spectacular sea view, framed by two Taxus bacatta (Yew) trees which have been heavily cut back.   Clouds and sea merge into one with just the sandy beach at Hell’s Mouth Bay punctuating the view.  The lawn is surrounded by borders which, at this time of the year have Daffodil, Tulipa and Lunaria annua which give a splash of colour, without detracting from the view beyond.

Here the garden borrows from and merges into the surrounding landscape on a spectacular scale.   At the edge of the lawn a duck blue bench is perfectly placed to sit, contemplate, and take in the view.  Euonymus and Spiraea sit just below the wall and the trees, bereft of leaves, along the slopes below, break up the landscape perfectly with their branches silhouetting against the sea.  Just being here awakens senses and stirs emotions.

As well as the striking Buxus hedging, the garden is scattered with Taxus baccata topiary which is well established and adds structure.  Keeping all of this clipped must be a labour of love for the gardeners because, at the time of my visit, it all looked very well kept and extremely healthy.

Much thought has been given to the hedging and topiary because it is made up of many different shades of green and this is set off against the variety of different coloured shrubs in the garden.  On the bottom terrace a beautiful yellow coloured Kerria japonica is striking against a ruby red Azalea and very tall Dicksonia antartica (Tree Fern) with clipped topairy Ilex aquifolium.

Although the peninsula is subject to very harsh weather at times, Plas Yn Rhiw has its own microclimate and is sheltered from the worst weather due to its position.  Testament to this is the survival of the Dicksonia antartica (Tree Fern) which seemed to be thriving on the lower terraces of the garden contrasting beautifully with the mature trees beyond which also provide shelter.

Close to the house the Buxus gives a very enclosed feeling and makes the garden seem intimately connected with the house itself.  Its purpose is two-fold as it also protects all of the plants within its boundaries from the elements enabling them to thrive.

There is a beautiful veranda along the front of the house with a very small curved lawn area adjacent which is framed with a hedge.  This curve shape cleverly matches, and lines up with, the curve of the bay beyond the garden.

The beautiful Abutilon 'Ashford Red' climbs up and along the veranda and I believe that it flowers for a very long period.  There is also a stunning Rosa 'Zephirine Drouhin' and both flourish due to the shelter close by the house itself.

Plas Yn Rhiw really is a special place and somewhere I was extremely lucky to see.  It is testament to the three Keating sisters that it remains as beautiful today as they made it during their own time there.  As if to confirm these thoughts a stunning rainbow appeared in the sky just as I walked through the gates to leave !  You could not get anything more magical than that - it is a hidden place of love, tranquility and peace.