Palé Hall Hotel

Palé Hall was built in 1871 for the Scottish railway engineer Henry Robertson, and its guest book opened impressively — Queen Victoria stayed in 1889, and the bath she used is still in the room that carries her name. The house sits in fifteen acres of riverside parkland in the Dee Valley, on the quiet eastern approach to Eryri, with the river running below the lawns and the Berwyn hills behind.

Only eighteen rooms occupy the house, which keeps it feeling more like a private home with exceptional service than a hotel. The Victorian interiors have been restored rather than reinvented — stained glass, carved staircases, hand-painted ceilings — and the estate still runs partly on a hydro-electric scheme installed in the 1920s, which underpins the property's Michelin Green Star for sustainability.

The kitchen cooks a Welsh larder of Dee salmon, Welsh Black beef and mountain lamb. Beyond the grounds the valley offers fly fishing on the river, shooting, riding, and the whole of southern Eryri within easy reach — Bala Lake, the Aran ridge and the Llangollen canal.