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Driving the back roads of Carmarthenshire in spring, beneath broad oaks, over little stone bridges and along stretches of fertile woodland, windswept peatland and flowery meadows, I was reminded of the rudimentary treasure maps I loved drawing as a child. The ones composed of contrasting, caricatured environments spaced neatly within the concise contours of a fictional island, say, bearing labels like Wild Wood, Barren Bog and Misty Hills. Enticing though these untamed landscapes are, I’m in search of a different kind of bounty.
Beyond its green, green hills, castles, beaches and historic market towns (not least Dylan Thomas’s Laugharne), Carmarthenshire is also considered the Garden of Wales – which was news to me, despite family ties to the area. I’ve visited some of these botanical highlights over the years, such as Aberglasney Gardens for their tonal variety and the National Botanic Garden with its astounding glasshouse.
But with ever more tempting places to eat, sleep and ramble within this corner of Wales, I’ve often thought of composing a gardener’s dream itinerary: a handful of the county’s best gardens, a forest walk, an inviting pub or two, and somewhere lovely to stay the night. This spring I finally got around to road testing it.
The first thing to figure out was the all-important base from which to explore the county. Equidistant between the towns of Carmarthen and Llandeilo, forming the apex of a Carmarthenshire triangle, is the pretty village of Brechfa: a clutch of stone cottages, a community shop, pub and chapel below a forested hillside and beside the frothing River Cothi. It’s also the home of Tŷ Mawr, a Grade II-listed country hotel and restaurant that prides itself on its dining, spacious rooms (Tŷ Mawr means big house), dog-friendliness and a location at once “in the middle of nowhere yet close to everywhere”– which was certainly true for the purposes of my visit, with all waypoints little more than 20 minutes’ drive away. Welcoming my wife and I at the end of our M4 slog from Hampshire was hotelier David, who with his partner, Gill, took the reins of Tŷ Mawr in 2022.
After breakfast, there was a temptation to savour the hotel’s own apple-blossomed garden and terrace, but our first location beckoned: Abergwili’s Bishop’s Park and Gardens. Now managed by the Tywi Gateway Trust, charitable investment has helped to rejuvenate this relic site on the outskirts of Carmarthen (also the home of the Carmarthenshire Museum), while the restored grounds encompass a planted woodland walk, a water meadow and lake, and specimen trees once the pride of the resident bishops, including monkey puzzles and dawn redwoods. At its heart is the Jenkinson Garden: a series of intensively gardened 19th century-themed beds, which head gardener Blue Barnes-Thomas infuses with vibrant plug-ins – tulips and crocuses for spring, umbels and sweet peas for summer. Walking me around the site, he explained the next steps in the renewal project, including renovating its 18th-century walled garden with new pathways, accessible greenhouses and heritage gooseberries.
Lunch was at Wright’s in Llanarthney. Owned and run by food writer Simon Wright, together with his wife, Maryann, it offers a chic, pared-down menu of elaborate flavours, and a lovely asparagus salad.
If you sampled a glass too many of the robust house wine, the good news is that Aberglasney Gardens is only a stone’s throw across the Tywi valley, its floral exuberance and plant diversity a kind of intoxication in itself.
Much like Bishop’s Park, Aberglasney is a story of successful regeneration: a crumbling mansion and a four-hectare (10-acre) garden painstakingly and beautifully resuscitated, opening to the public in 1999. Featuring alpine, kitchen and Elizabethan cloister gardens, meadows crammed with fritillaria and camassia, an indoor ninfarium and a walled garden reimagined by garden designer Penelope Hobhouse, the place is a genuine wonder. In 2011, Kew-trained head gardener Joseph Atkin was appointed to continue the garden’s evolution, which saw Aberglasney develop into one of the finest formal gardens in the UK.
A few years ago, Atkin hung up the trowel and opened a pub – The Plough – up the road in Felingwm, where you can find relaxed, wood-fired dining, Welsh ales and – if you’re cheeky enough to ask – a little gardening advice on the side.
On into the afternoon sun, which only intensified the lush profusion, and “up country” to Llandysul, as no garden itinerary is complete without an independent plant nursery – and here lies one of the greats. Spanning 1.2 hectares of polytunnels, open stock yards and shopfront, Farmyard Nurseries is known for its eclectic, hardy plants, including an expansive collection of exquisite hellebores.
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But its best-kept secret is the woodland garden at the back. This is where nursery owner Richard Bramley and his team have let fancies run feral. Japanese maples and bright rhododendrons spill over narrow woodchip pathways, while drifts of spring ephemerals and shade-loving perennials (such as yellow comfrey and, indeed, many of the nursery’s hellebores) spread out below the deciduous canopy. Buried within are further surprises: a wildlife pond and a Tolkienesque lath and plaster hut – a whimsical, after-hours project Richard told me was contrived as they went along. We left Farmyard Nurseries with a crate of the liquorice-scented agastache ‘Blackadder’ and a scarlet aquilegia I’ve long sought.
If floral yearnings aren’t satiated at this point in the day, on the way back to Brechfa, you could drop into Norwood Gardens and Tea Rooms, which offers a range of Mediterranean, woodland and bog plantings. But we were keen to get back in time for the three-course dinner at Tŷ Mawr, featuring butter bean cassoulet and braised hake.
Our meal plans were almost scuppered, however, when our car broke down on the Llandysul to Brechfa road, high on the lofty peat moor above Tŷ Mawr. The dramatic remoteness of the location was actually quite comical – we couldn’t have picked a more isolated spot for an alternator failure (here’s a tip: if it sounds like something just fell out of your engine, reconsider crossing barren moorland). Owing to the kindness of a local mechanic, we were back at the hotel within an hour or so, leaning into a mushroom paté starter.
A slower pace on day two allowed for a wander along one of Brechfa’s many surrounding forestry trails, managed by Natural Resources Wales (NRW). We opted for the Keepers Riverside Trail, its abundance of pale pink cuckoo flowers leading down a misty, gorse-lit track into shafts of morning sunlight. There are numerous mountain bike and riding trails here also, though NRW are still working to reopen the Brechfa Forest Garden – an experimental forestry plot established in the late 1950s that now makes for an impressive coniferous arboretum – after storm damage.
You can then take the road south, crossing the River Tywi once more, for the National Botanic Garden of Wales. Resist making straight for the Great Glasshouse perched at the top of the hill – the largest single-span glasshouse in the world. Instead, let that be the encore and take your time meandering up – via the daylily-lined lake and the deep herbaceous beds; the Japanese, walled, kitchen and boulder gardens; and the orchid-filled tropical house. And once in the vast glasshouse, enjoy the snaking pathways that lead through geographically themed zones displaying the likes of Australian banksia, South African protea and magnificent Macaronesian echium.
The garden’s progressive aspirations include reversing the decline of Welsh-native flora and getting every school child in Wales engaged with nature.
A new cycle path, already partially opened, is due to be completed this autumn, connecting most of the locations mentioned here. Beginning at Bishop’s Park and tracing a former railway track through the scenic Tywi valley, you can jump off for the botanic gardens, Wright’s and Aberglasney, and do away with the car altogether.
The trip was provided by Discover Carmarthenshire and Tŷ Mawr Hotel and Restaurant (doubles from £140 B&B). Lunch was hosted at Wright’s
