Fairyhill

Fairyhill is an eighteenth-century house set well back from the lanes near Reynoldston, in the middle of the Gower peninsula — the first area in Britain to be designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Twenty-four acres of woodland, lawn and a trout stream screen it almost entirely from the outside world.

There are eight bedrooms, individually decorated and comfortably scaled, with a sitting room and open fire downstairs and a bar and cellar that built the house's reputation over several decades as one of the best-known places to eat and stay in south Wales. It now sits within the Oldwalls group of Gower venues, and weddings are a significant part of the business.

The position is the main argument for staying: Rhossili Bay and the Worm's Head are fifteen minutes west, Oxwich and Three Cliffs Bay a similar distance east, and the whole peninsula is small enough to explore from a single base.