Martin Bright 

The Wynnstay, Machynlleth

The Wynnstay, Machynlleth.
  
  


An eighteenth-century coaching inn with an award-winning kitchen, within reach of Snowdonia. Is this too good to be true?

Drive through any sizeable British market town and you'll see an old coaching inn: it will have a few local beers if you're lucky, karaoke and cheap Sunday roasts if you aren't. Often they are forced to close: too big and unwieldy to be profitable without a bit of imagination. This one is different.

So what happened with the Wynnstay?

Owners Sheila and Charles Dark realised it was possible to restore this Georgian hotel to its former glory without losing its roots in the local community. A local bar with a pool table caters for younger drinkers, while an area that would once have been called a snug is there for visitors and older locals. This all helps avoid the local boycott you often get when a regional establishment tries to take itself upmarket. This still has something of the atmosphere of a wayfarers' inn, where walkers and groups of pensioners are as welcome as business people and gourmands.

Isn't Machynlleth a bit too remote?

Believe it or not, some people do actually live in Wales. For the rest of us, the M54 makes mid-Wales surprisingly easy to reach from London or Birmingham (the bulk of visitors to this part of the country still come from the Midlands). Machynlleth is just up the coast from Aberystwyth and on a good day you can get there from the end of the motorway at Telford in Shropshire in an hour and a half.

What about the rooms?

Tastefully refurbished with a feel that is more nineteenth- than eighteenth-century, the whole place is a little dark and mysterious, but then so is mid-Wales. This is a hotel entirely in keeping with its surroundings.

And what are the surroundings?

Just on the edge of Snowdonia, the Wynnstay is a stone's throw from the magnificent Cadair Idris (check out the massive Romantic engraving of the mountain in the side lounge). The town was one of the candidates for Welsh capital in the Fifties because it was the historical base for the Welsh national hero, Owain Glyndwr: the leader of the struggle against the English had his parliament here. The Museum of Modern Art in Wales, and Celtica, a museum celebrating the heritage of the Celts, are both in the town, and the Centre for Alternative Technology is nearby. The Tal-y-Llyn steam railway climbs into the hills from Tywyn just up the coast.

· The Wynnstay, Machynlleth, Powys (01654 702941 email: info@wynnstay-hotel.com) has standard doubles for £35 per person B&B. Bedroom with a four-poster B&B costs £50 per person. Three nights, which must include a Sunday, cost £155 per person, half board.

 

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