Gliffaes Country House Hotel

Gliffaes was built in 1885 in an Italianate style complete with campanile towers, perched on a bluff above a bend in the River Usk inside the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The Brabner family have run it as a hotel since 1948, and that continuity shows in the slightly worn, entirely unpretentious comfort of the place.

Bedrooms vary considerably — some grand with river views, others cosier under the eaves — and the public rooms have the feel of a private house that has simply opened its doors: a big drawing room, a fire, tea laid out on the sideboard in the afternoon. The kitchen cooks seasonally and the wine list is a labour of love.

Thirty-three acres of grounds are the real glory, planted with rare and specimen trees and sloping to two and a half miles of private fishing on the Usk, one of the best wild brown trout and salmon rivers in Wales. Crickhowell is two miles away and the Black Mountains rise directly behind.