‘In a small village in a valley, surrounded by forest walks’, Annabel and Stephen Thomas’s 16th-century country house is ‘ideal for guests wishing to holiday with their four-legged friend’. Inspectors received ‘an efficient welcome from Annabel, who signed us in, showed us round and carried our case to our large ground-floor room accessed by a separate outside door’. It was ‘beautifully warm’ with ‘basic, rustic pine furniture, a very comfortable super-king-size bed’, a ‘rather gloomy’ bathroom. The residents’ lounge had a wood-burner, while ‘a split dining room, divided by a large stone fireplace, is used as a breakfast room at the lower level’. At night, Stephen Thomas creates ‘outstanding’ locally sourced dishes. ‘A Welsh cheese and cauliflower soup, pan-fried duck breast with Cointreau and orange sauce, guineafowl leg and breast with hazelnut stuffing’ were all ‘consistently appetising’, served with ‘wonderful moist home-made bread’. The hostess ‘works tirelessly to ensure guest satisfaction, providing tea and cake on request’. Breakfast includes free-range eggs, Carmarthen dry-cured ham, local sausages, Wye valley smoked salmon.