Thick stone walls, beamed ceilings, works by local artists, an inglenook fire and ‘friendly, hospitable hosts’ give this 16th-century country house-turned-hotel heaps of rustic charm. A bonus: in clement weather, ‘drinks on the manicured lawn, before dinner in the pretty dining room, are divine’. Annabel and Stephen Thomas, the owners, are ‘great fun’; the atmosphere is ‘relaxed and informal’. Bedrooms, some surprisingly large, are simple in style, but ‘immaculately maintained’ and well stocked with ‘all the amenities you’d expect in a five-star hotel’. In the restaurant, choose from Stephen Thomas’s local produce-packed, daily-changing menu, perhaps including smoked Cardigan Bay mackerel and horseradish pâté, Ty Mawr apple and mustard seed chutney; organic Welsh Black beef fillet, braised oxtail. At breakfast, ‘leisurely and very civilised’, there are pork-and-leek sausages, eggs Royale with Severn and Wye valley smoked salmon, sometimes even juice from the garden apples. Country lanes stretch out, afterwards, and walks in the Brechfa forest – all moss, thick ferns, ancient trees and busy birdlife – await. More reports, please.