Naylor commissioned Edward Kemp, a pupil of Sir Joseph Paxton, to lay out the gardens from 1850 onwards. The gardens, now largely derelict, are of many kinds, from woodland to formal, arranged as a number of set-pieces with pools and stone sculptures linked by broad paths. A dry bridge leads from the library garden and the tower across a hollow to the main walk and over another bridge (carvings of creatures including an elephant). Below is a figure of Icarus falling headlong through the surface of a pond. The revised Powys Pevsner lists the statue as being in situ, following the original edition. It was in fact removed in the 1990s when the then owners of Leighton sought to sell it. Stored by Powys Council for 25 years, it is now due to be returned to the gardens. A Grade II listed structure, it was sculpted by Hippolyte Ferrat. At the end is a view to the spire of Leighton church, and another bridge leads back to the house. The High Bridge (1858), a lofty viaduct taking a high road above the valley has been demolished. In 1874 Kemp laid out a decorative water cascade fed from a series of lakes, which sequenced down from the Moel y Mab on Long Mountain. He then developed the estate's Park Wood, making use—like many Victorians of the time—of exotic species including monkey puzzle trees. The 1857 Charles Ackers Memorial Redwood grove - the largest and oldest grove of coast redwoods in Europe - and the historic Naylor pinetum are today listed Grade 1 locations, now managed by the Royal Forestry Society.