Plas Brondanw (grid reference SH616422) in Carreg Llanfrothen, Gwynedd, North Wales, was the family home of Clough Williams-Ellis, creator of the Italianate village Portmeirion, and elements of similar architectural styles can be seen at both locations.
Plas Brondanw stands on the road to the tiny village of Croesor and the distinctive Snowdonia mountain named Cnicht.
Williams-Ellis inherited the run-down Plas Brondanw from his father in 1908, when he was aged 25, and set about restoring both the house and the gardens. The house itself had by this time been split into apartments, and the garden had been turned into allotments.
In 1951 the property was badly damaged by fire, and this event, and the subsequent restoration of the property, is commemorated by a flaming urn statue, mounted at the top of a waterfall.
Also across the road, but within the grounds of Plas Brondanw, Williams-Ellis had constructed a folly named Folly Castle. A plaque records that the castle was "a wedding present from the Welsh Guards to Clough Williams-Ellis and Amabel Strachey in 1915." Located on a small hill, it affords good views of the surrounding landscape. Scenes from the film Inn of the Sixth Happiness and the Doctor Who film The Five Doctors were filmed at the folly.
The gardens are open to the public for a small fee. The former stable building was converted into a cafe and craft shop in 2011 BBC news north west Wales.