A five-star rating is a lot to live up to, and this Welsh B&B doesn't quite deliver – but the cakes are delicious
There is something engaging about this B&B's website – not the design, but the voice so clear in the text, making a case, succinctly, for visiting Tresaith, on the western coast of Wales. I read that children can dabble in rock pools. I read of a beachfront pub, mountains, coast walks. It mentions John Nash, German U-boats and a seal colony. One page is headed, evocatively, "Woodland Refuge by the Sea". It succeeds where websites often fail, and the B&B has five stars to boot.
So I'm on a winding driveway, passing ruffles of bronze ferns, a tumbledown stone building and tall trees which darken the approach in a dramatic build-up to – oh – a slightly unmanicured parking area. Against the terraced garden's untamed, colour-drained steepness, the house stands in contrast, painted the colour of peppermint creams.
Co-owner Alun Ceri Jones opens a hefty front door to reveal a beautiful tiled hallway. Dumping my things on the hallstand, I perch in the sitting room on part of a moquette three-piece. Dusk descends. Wish the curtains were drawn and the woodburner lit.
He's ferrying in coffee and Welsh cakes. Baked, he says, by daughter Anna who is "head of cakes". Alun's wife Linda is away on a cookery course. He works in Welsh television. Bet he wrote the website. I sip coffee from a mug and, in the absence of a side plate, try not to drop cake crumbs (or scoff the lot – these are meltingly good).
Through a gothic arch in the red sitting room a breakfast room of the same hue is visible. Three sets of tables and chairs (one per guest room), a three-piece suite at the far end and a floor-standing gilt mirror are swallowed up by its proportions.
En route to my billet, Alun points out the circular roof lantern above the stairwell. Perhaps a clue, he says, that craftsmen employed up the road at Llanerchaeron (an early example of John Nash's work, now National Trust) brought their fancy ideas to Glandwr.
Ooh, charming room. Peaceful, with armchairs, solid vintage oak furniture, and thoughtful touches, from tiny hottie to clothes brush and torch (for walking to dinner at the pub, the Ship Inn. Clever). A sort of tea and coffee "lobby" (oh God, more temptation from head of cakes) and a gratifyingly sexy bathroom are down a couple of steps in a 100-year-old extension. The temperature in there plummets when the heating goes off sometime after I return from the pub.
The next morning I'm disappointed by the lack of a menu, and good fruit salad is followed by a very plain poached egg on what looks like brown sliced. Not a five-star breakfast.
They have plans to create a tearoom in here. Now that makes total sense – there are numerous footpaths nearby. One way to make this room inviting is to fill it. What doesn't make sense is why the tourist board has awarded Glandwr five stars so soon. This area needs a decent B&B, and now it has that, but it seems clear the head of catering is away and that Glandwr is still finding its feet.
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