A farmer who took on the tenancy of a £1m “dream farm” for a mere £1 as part of a conservation project has told a court of his terrible struggle with the harsh landscape, the competing interests of organisations involved in the land – and the tendency of sheep to wander.

Dan Jones, 40, beat thousands of shepherds and farmers keen to take on Parc Farm, owned by the National Trust on the striking Great Orme headland near Llandudno in north Wales.

But less than three years on he is facing trial before a district judge over allegations of mismanagement brought by Conwy county borough council, which include an offence of failing to dispose of three dead sheep.

Giving evidence on Thursday, Jones told the district judge Gwyn Jones that he had battled with the elements since taking over the farm and fought to keep sheep away from cliff edges and out of people’s gardens.

He said the first winter, 2016, had gone well. “The conditions were favourable. It was a very mild winter,” he said. But 2017 and 2018 were very different, with storms and snow sweeping in, making life very difficult.

Jones said at one point the wind was so fierce that it blew the roof off a shed used to house sheep and that the “knacker men” could not keep up with collecting dead livestock.

There was no physical boundary between the headland and the town, the court was told. “The sheep on the Orme were not happy,” he said. “The sheep found there was a lot more grass in places like the cricket pitch and would wander down overnight into town.” It was a struggle to keep the residents of Llandudno on his side. “It’s annoying having sheep outside your house and in the roads and in gardens,” he said.

Jones told the court that he was a fourth generation farmer from Anglesey. “My farming experience commenced growing up on the small family farm. I was always involved with sheep and sheep farming,” he said. “From a young age I used to help my father.” He started farming himself on Anglesey in 2017.

Friends told him about the Great Orme scheme. “I dismissed it at the time,” he said. “As a couple of days went by, I looked into it and the main attraction was the farm for a pound a year.” He and his wife Ceri thought the farm would be a fresh challenge.

Jones said running Parc Farm on the top of Great Orme, which protrudes into the Irish Sea, was very different to running a lowland farm in Anglesey. “It gets a battering from the weather,” he said. “The wind and rain can be pretty bad. It can be dangerous at times.

“It’s very challenging because of the cliffs. Sheep get stuck on cliffs. I have had to employ climbers to save them. I have had sheep fall in the sea. One of my sheepdogs fell 50ft into the sea.”

Jones said there were lots of organisations involved with the management of the headland, including Natural Resources Wales and charities such as the RSPB, and that he was in the middle of conflicting interests.

Trading standards officers visited the farm after a complaint from a member of the public about dead sheep. She said officers found three carcasses. There were no animal welfare concerns.

Jones faces one charge of failing to dispose of three sheep carcasses, one of failing to keep a register of animal movements and nine of failing to notify the authorities of animals he had received between 2016, when he took over the tenancy, and 2018. He denies the charges.

At the time of the competition in 2016, the National Trust called the tenancy an “incredible life-changing opportunity” and said its offices were dealing with more than 100 inquiries an hour from as far away as Australia, Brazil and Japan.

Jones said at the time: “I couldn’t quite believe it when I got the call to say I was successful. I was in shock. My wife Ceri, son Efan and I are just super excited. This opportunity will change our lives.

“Y Parc is a dream farm, it is such a beautiful location, the views are amazing, and I’m really looking forward to farming in a different way to make a difference for nature.

“With the tenancy at just a pound, it allows us to be able to farm far less intensively, focus on improving the habitats.”

The Great Orme is home to wild cotoneaster and two subspecies of butterfly, the grayling and the silver-studded blue, that exist nowhere else.

The trial continues.