Argoed Barns

If you’d like to work up an appetite for dinner (in the pub or on the barbecue), there are lots of places to get out for a good hike nearby. You can reach one of the trailheads for Pen y Fan with a 20-minute drive, take a waterside stroll at Pontsticill Reservoir (35 minutes) or head to Hay Bluff (half an hour), at the northern edge of the Black Mountains. For other outdoor pursuits, there’s canoeing on the River Wye from Glasbury (15 minutes), horse riding and watersports at Llangorse Lake (20 minutes), and incredibly fragrant wild swimming in the lake at Farmers’ Welsh Lavender (half an hour). The many bookshops and other independent shops make Hay-on-Wye (25 minutes) a lovely place to poke around in for a while; for other chilled-out days, maybe go wine tasting at Sugar Loaf Vineyards (35 minutes), see big birds in action at the Red Kite Feeding Station (40 minutes) or take a woolly alpaca for a walk with Alpaca My Boots (20 minutes).