Penmaenuchaf Hard to say, easy to stay

Glorious rooms, great food, friendly staff and a family vibe make this a contender for the best hotel in Wales

It definitely wins the award for confusing spellings,” says the 10-yearold as we weave through Snowdonia towards our hotel. As usual, she is right. Penmaenuchaf (Pen-mine-i-chav) is a grand old stone hotel, out in the hills beyond Dolgellau (dol-geth-ai), near the market town of Machynlleth (Ma-hunt-leth).

Got that? Honestly, it is worth wrapping your tongue around it. This area is my family’s favourite part of Wales – a magical, untamed, mountainous place of myth and legend where Welsh princes warred and – if you know your Mabinogion – dragons swooped, watched by giants and wizards.

This fierce independence is still rooted deep in the soil. Machynlleth has brilliant shops, a world-class comedy festival and the punchily named MOMA Machynlleth art gallery. Dolgellau is even prettier – the perfect place to fill a picnic hamper before climbing Cadair Idris, one of Snowdonia’s mightiest mountains; scalable by sturdy children, complete with waterfalls and a glacial, swimmable lake, Llyn Cau (the bottomless home of a monster, says legend).

Penmaenuchaf sits at the foot of the mountain, and spelling is not the only award for which it vies. It stakes a very strong claim to the title of Wales’ best hotel rooms. Wales is full of wonders, but – and I am risking a barrage of irate letters here, principally from my own Welsh family – fabulous hotels have not, traditionally, been top of this list. Penmaenuchaf could change that.

Opening its oak front doors feels like stepping into a grand family home. Sepia family photos and letters are framed on the walls, stained-glass windows flicker with light from crackling fires, tartan sofas tempt from snug living rooms. The bar is the cutest I have seen – with room for just four or five people, but home to three times as many whiskies. A vast, oak-panelled drawing room looks out over the 19th-century terraced gardens, which slope steeply down to the swollen Mawddach Estuary. You could walk for days, bike, fish, explore the coast or simply sit with a book and watch the weather race across the mountains.

Penmaenuchaf was bought in 2022 by Neil and Zoe Kedward, owners of Pembrokeshire’s cult Grove of Narberth hotel. A slow and sensitive renovation is underway. The first phase – focusing on four bedrooms at the top of the hotel – is finished, and they are like Narnia in reverse. Instead of passing from boring bedroom into wooded fairyland, you come in from the wild world outside, climb the staircase and find yourself in a wonderland of witty wallpapering, warm colours and lovely textiles.

These new rooms are perfect for families. Each pair has its own separate staircase. Take two and you almost have your own private apartment. The children claim Eyri – a rose-coloured haven with vaulted ceilings, green-gingham curtains, roll-top bath and a red-wine velvet headboard. Across the landing, our room Mawddach is a study in blue. Ditsy wallpaper in a sloping sitting room. Luxuriously lined, striped curtains parting into a bedroom of duckegg panelling, quilts and Welsh antiques. The marble bathroom of dreams. Even the kids (usually blind to all but the television) are entranced. The transformation is the work of Nicola Harding, superstar designer also responsible for London’s super-luxe Beaverbrook Townhouse. You can trace the connection – mostly in the joyful embrace of texture, hue and pattern.

The 12 further bedrooms are – for the moment – more conservative. The dining room could use a wave of Harding’s magic wand. The Kedwards funnelled cash into the kitchen instead, where head chef Thomas Hine can now realise his potential. Dish after wondrous dish comes at dinner – each cosmopolitan but rooted in local produce and tradition, precise but never pretentious. Service is a joy – staff slipping seamlessly between Welsh and English, formality and friendliness. A couple of famous faces are dining, separately, on the same night as us, allowed to settle into blissful and absolute anonymity.

Meanwhile the newborn at her parents’ table, and our two tweens, are treated with the same seriousness and respect. The kids – no fools – are wise to the rare brilliance of the place. Sure, there is no pool, no kids’ club, no playground, but the outside world is a far bigger and wilder adventure. On a winter’s night, the history and character of the world inside exerts a powerful magic, too. We all want to return ASAP.

A family of four can book two rooms from £460 for both, B&B. Some rooms can also accommodate a Z-Bed.

There is no pool, no kids’ club, no playground, but the outside world is a far bigger, wilder adventure