The WHGT office is at the Bothy, Aberglasney, a magical ‘lost garden’ of Wales. Sited in the Tywi valley, its gardens include Britain’s only surviving Elizabethan cloister garden and parapet walk. An ambitious programme of restoration has saved Aberglasney from neglect and abandonment. The origins of Aberglasney remain a mystery but it may have been the site of the ‘nine green gardens’ of Rhydderch described by the bard Lewis Glyn Cothi c.1470.

Garden archaeology has revealed layers of history with the earliest surviving structures from the early 1600s belonging to the house built by the Bishop of St David's, Anthony Rudd and his son Sir Rice. Later developments are by Robert Dyer of the early C18 when the lawn was raised and the house remodelled in the Queen Anne style. There is interesting planting including a wide variety of woodland plants, such as meconopsis, and orchids.

Recently an indoor garden has been created within the ruin of the courtyard, where rare tender plants are cultivated.

Today you can see just how much has changed. This garden was saved with the support of WHGT.

Paul White photographed Aberglasney in 1995, (See images below and www.paulwhitephotographic.co.uk and www.welshruins.co.uk )

Artist William Wilkins was the founder of the National Botanic Garden of Wales at Middleton Hall. Enthusiasm, persistence and the support of the Millennium Commission led to the Botanic garden being established. Wilkins was also the founder chairman of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust and a former director of the Aberglasney Restoration Trust.

See  here for further information.

Hafod, is the remarkable Picturesque designed landscape creation of Thomas Johnes, cousin of Richard Payne Knight, saved thanks to a private benefactor through the WHGT in partnership with the Forestry Commission. Hafod is now managed by Ymddiriedolaeth yr Hafod - The Hafod Trust. This late Eighteenth century landscape was one of the finest examples of ‘the Picturesque’ influenced by William Mason’s poem ‘the English Garden’(1772-82) and William Gilpin. Hafod is also an exploration of the sublime aesthetic, famous for its ‘Devil’s Bridge’ and was visited by many of the romantic writers and philosophers of the day. Between 1795 and 1801 Johnes planted over two million trees and ‘improved ‘the natural rugged surroundings such as around the ‘Cavern Cascade’ for the sake of the view.