Château Rhianfa

Rhianfa was built in the 1840s by Sir John Hay Williams for his wife, who had fallen for the châteaux of the Loire; the result is a run of grey turrets and steep slate roofs that looks improbable on the Anglesey shore and entirely convincing once you are inside it. The house is Grade II listed and sits directly above the Menai Strait, looking across to the Snowdonia range.

Bedrooms run from compact lodge rooms to turret suites and self-contained cottage suites in the grounds, twenty-seven in total, decorated with more velvet and gilt than the average Welsh country house. Le Dragon Rouge, the restaurant, plays to the building's Franco-Welsh conceit.

Terraced gardens step down to a private stretch of shingle beach on the Strait, and the hotel arranges falconry, tennis and cookery and cocktail sessions. Beaumaris and its castle are a short drive along the coast; the Anglesey Coast Path passes nearby.