‘An absolute gem!’ wrote a reader, of this ‘stunning country house’, the former home of the Armstrong-Jones family, with views to the Menai Strait and Snowdonia on the doorstep. It is promoted from the Shortlist with a nod from an inspector. ‘Part 17th-century, mostly Victorian’, it stands in ‘attractive grounds at the end of a potholed drive’ and is ‘full of family and royal memorabilia’. Bedrooms vary from the ‘compact’ Butler’s Room, ‘reached by steep stairs’, to four-poster Princess Margaret, with a bathroom TV, an ice bucket for the fizz. ‘Lady Armstrong-Jones was my favourite, in gentle greys and yellows, with a four-poster, countryside views’, a ‘tiny’ bathroom. Guests are encouraged to gather for drinks in the sitting room, with grand piano, open fire, a cacophony of competing patterns, before dinner in the Gun Room, cooked by Daniel ap Geraint, served by white-gloved waiters. Perhaps wild mushroom risotto, pickled celeriac, crispy sage, truffle oil; braised pork cheek, malted cauliflower, apple and caper; ‘excellent’ sirloin of Welsh beef. Breakfast was the proverbial curate’s egg, but ‘the hits outweigh the misses’. (Tom Challinor, and others)