‘A great base for exploring’, Richard Ireton and Sarah Hudson’s ‘pleasing, white-painted coaching inn’ stands overlooking an old stone bridge across the River Monmow, while ‘behind it, green hills gently rise’. Popular with walkers and their dogs, it accepts orders for picnic lunches. ‘When my friend said she’d have to leave before breakfast, they offered to pack her a smoked salmon sandwich,’ a Guide insider reports. A ‘large, handsome’ top-floor bedroom under the eaves, ‘decorated in tranquil shades’, had a seating area with sofa and table, ‘biscuits, ground coffee, milk in a vacuum flask’. Pricier rooms have, variously, a four-poster, a bath and walk-in shower, a separate sitting room. At night, all are ‘countryside silent’. In the dining room, Mr Ireton, ‘every inch the jolly innkeeper, toured the tables to chat’, as diners addressed themselves to chef Joseph Colman’s ‘very good, very satisfying’ cooking. A typical dish: Brecon lamb rump, olive mash, peas, fine green beans, minted jus. At breakfast there were local yogurts, smoked salmon, ‘three kinds of ham’, home-made bread (from the inn’s new bakery, recently opened) and jam, hot food cooked to order.