The college was first planned by Charles William Sandles when he purchased the estate from Ruthin Castle in 1909, and renamed it as Valley Farm.

In 1919, Denbighshire County Council (1889–1974) purchased the site, leading to improvements culminating in the recognition of the school as a Farm Institute.

From 1633 to 1909, it was owned by the Myddleton family of Chirk, and their descendants, the Wests and lastly the Cornwallis-Wests of Ruthin Castle.

[1][2] In 1909, Charles William Sandles of Cheshire bought the estate for £13,680, and made plans to establish an agricultural college on the site.

However, in March 1911, a mere three months prior to the proposed opening of the farm school, it faced financial difficulties.

Plans to establish an agricultural educational facility still went ahead, with it advertised as Llysfasi Manor Farm School.

[1][2] In 1919, Denbighshire County Council (1889–1974), utilising a Ministry of Agriculture grant, purchased Llysfasi from Brown.

By the end of the 1950s, the college hosted a variety of rural courses, adding courses involving crops and animal husbandry, domestic skills, dairying, gardening, household management and accounting, poultry, machinery, and uphostery and furnishing.

They formed part of the Deeside College Group, one of the largest institutions in Wales and the UK.

[7] In April 2019, it hosted the UK Loggers competition and training day, to attract competitors for international contests.

The college focuses on Agricultural Studies, as well as providing both full and part-time courses concerning Animal care, business, care and childcare, engineering, hair, beauty and holistic therapy, information technology, modern languages and Welsh.

[1][2][14] The farm of the college is more than 300 hectares (740 acres) in land area, and spans from steep hills, through open upland grass, to the lowlands of the Vale of Clwyd.

It also offered community support and courses in outreach centres across the Vale of Clwyd, Dee Valley, and North Wales coast.

[13] The Llysfasi campus is located in Pentrecelyn in the Vale of Clwyd, near Ruthin, in Denbighshire and within the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.