Gelli Aur country park

About

Gelli Aur (meaning: Golden Grove) is a country park in Carmarthenshire, Wales, with 60 acres (240,000 m2) of wooded parkland surrounding Golden Grove mansion. It was once the home of the Vaughan and Cawdor families. The park featured a number of nature trails, a 20-acre (81,000 m2) deer park, a 10-acre (40,000 m2) Aboretum planted in the 1860s.

The park was managed for many years by Carmarthenshire County Council. The park is registered (as Golden Grove) at Grade II* on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales. The mansion features crow stepped gables, a battlemented portico and tall polygonal chimney stacks.

The original Vaughan mansion, built between 1565 and 1570, no longer exists. In 1804 the last of the Vaughans died childless and the Gelli Aur estate passed to the Cawdor family. It was they who built the present mansion between 1827 and 1832.

The building was designed by Jeffry Wyatville who had recently worked on the renovations at Windsor Castle. The mansion is now privately owned, and a long programme of restoration is underway. Since the middle of the 20th century, the house has had a chequered history.

During World War Two, it housed...