Five Star

"A house with extensive stocks of food and wines, and a hall that is always filled with convivial company, civilised conversation, poetry and song. The house is a veritable vineyard, strongly built by craftsmen and standing in lush countryside"

Not a bad review, we thought we would stay for the night. Of course, there is a risk things may have changed since it was written, in 1450, by local Welsh bard Wiliam Egwad. A bard, of course, would entertain his hosts with poetry and song, providing entertainment, passing on news, and earning his bed and board for the night. It would have been in his interests to praise both the accommodation and the host ("a leader of men, a feared force in battle, a mighty mountain, but a meek lamb and genial host at home")

We did not offer poetry or song, but did our best to entertain and pass on news. Our hosts are old friends who fit the description pretty well (with a little allowance for metaphor). They have done extensive research into the history of the house, taking into account this and other references to it in bardic poetry, the genealogy of the people who lived here, the archaeology of the site and buildings, the architecture and analysis of the chemical composition of the mortar between the stones. It is a 'three-bay Welsh hall-house' and they are fairly confident it was built in about 1280

We can confirm that, 750 years later, it remains extensively stocked with food and wine