Dogs love this dining-pub-with-rooms, between the Black mountains and the Brecon Beacons, as much as their two-legged friends do. It is, our readers agree, a wonderful place. Launched in 2000 by Charles Inkin, it set the tone for two further ventures, The Old Coastguard, Mousehole, and The Gurnard’s Head, Zennor 
(see entries), which he runs with brother Edmund. All have a relaxed ambience and values of sustainability and support for the community. The bedroom style is smart casual, with Welsh blankets, flowers, a Roberts radio, home-baked biscuits, books and Bramley toiletries – no goggle-box, no UHT milk. You can eat in any of a series of small rooms, one with an Aga, where resident canines Max and Lottie might be seen warming themselves. Lunch and supper bring such dishes as oak-smoked salmon fishcakes, Middle White sausages with mash and greens, or gnocchi with peas and girolles. You can have your own dog with you at one table – or under the table in the Tack Room, if no one objects. Breakfast includes fruit from the kitchen garden, apple juice from the Usk valley, and home-made soda bread.