Conservation work at Llanerchaeron

Restoring the pleasure grounds at Llanerchaeron

Once an open and diverse landscape, over the years the pleasure grounds at Llanerchaeron have become enclosed and dominated by rhododendron ponticum. This is a stark contrast to how they were first imagined as the important backdrop to John Nash’s villa, with carefully designed planting to make the house appear nestled in the landscape. 

A project is under way to restore this area to its former Georgian glory so that you can visit and enjoy the pleasure grounds as nineteenth-century visitors would have. The amount of ponticum will be reduced to create open spaces and vistas, as well as introducing a greater variety of plants and more seasonal interest. 

Save our Magnificent Meadows project 

Llanerchaeron’s iconic parkland hay meadows were one of nine sites in Ceredigion to benefit from the Save Our Magnificent Meadows project. The project started in 2014 with the aim of improving the fortunes of 6,000 hectares of meadows and grasslands across the UK. Meadows and other species-rich grasslands are an intrinsic part of the UK’s natural and cultural heritage but have faced significant decline, with only 2% of the meadows that existed in the 1930s remaining today. 

On the sites involved in the project in Ceredigion the focus was on grazing the habitats in a particular way to make the grasslands as good as they can be for wildlife, as well as cutting back gorse and bracken and spreading wildflower seed. In River Meadow at Llanerchaeron an almost instant improvement for wildlife was seen in 2015 and by 2017 the meadow was full of life and colour.