The Angel Hotel, Abergavenny
Best for sumptuous bakes and mountain hiking
With such dramatic scenery on its doorstep, it’s no surprise this idyllic location was voted one of this year’s best places to live in Wales
The mountains of Monmouthshire are never far from sight in Abergavenny. With such dramatic scenery on its doorstep, it’s no surprise this idyllic location was voted one of this year’s best places to live in Wales*. Not fortunate enough to have this place as your postcode? The Angel Hotel (angelabergavenny.com) offers a home from home; its Castle Cottage strikes the right balance of modern luxuries and British home comforts with slate floors, a stone fireplace and Lewis & Wood fabrics. The perfect retreat after a long day’s hill hiking, one final ascent up the winding staircase reveals a decadent master bedroom with views of the Blorenge mountain range on the horizon, and below, a lavender-scented walled garden. Treats continue down the road at the hotel’s bakery (theangelbakery.com) with sourdough loaves lovingly hand-baked and leavened for longer to ensure maximum flavour. But be careful not to spoil your appetite for The Angel’s award-winning high tea: focusing on fragrant East India Company blends, this afternoon ritual offers classic coronation chicken and smoked salmon sandwiches plus mini savoury pastries and quiches, cakes and scones, topped off with a gin and Earl Grey tea cocktail (£30 per person). Walk off the sugar high on a five-hour circuit of Sugarloaf Mountain. Well worth pursuing for views along the Severn Estuary and Brecon Beacons, this heather-lined route can be cut in half by starting the ascent from the upper car park. Ambling back to lower ground, stop off at Abergavenny Market for local produce and head to The Market Bakery stall ( facebook.com/ Themarketbakery) for Welsh cakes straight from the griddle. For fine dining, The Angel’s Oak Room serves elegant starters of sweet watermelon and heritage tomato salad and mains including a Welsh loin of lamb or cod paired with squash gnocchi and girolles dipped in butter sauce (mains from £14). Warmth and community spirit is prevalent in all corners of Abergavenny, but The Art Shop & Chapel (artshopandgallery.co.uk) unites the town with shared supper feasts using foraged and garden grown produce. Start the morning in its pretty chapel courtyard feasting on French cinnamon toast and jostaberries (£10), or the spicy shakshuka (£8), but leave room for lunch at Michelin-starred The Walnut Tree (thewalnuttreeinn.com; complimentary taxi transfer for Castle Cottage guests). The heavily focused fish menu features a tandoori gurnard with masala sauce, raita and crispy pakora that packs a mighty punch, and fusions continue to flourish with the five-spice duck, artfully presented with soy and sesame sticky rice (mains from £16).
Loren Lazic-duffy