The inn

Six things the Harp does, each priced.

An inn is six businesses under one roof: the beds, the bar, the kitchen, the boot room, the barn and the week at Christmas. Each has a page with what it costs and how it works, and none of them has a price we would not say across the bar.

The Monmouthshire and Brecon canal towpath beside a whitewashed stone inn, a narrowboat moored below the garden, Table Mountain behind under a clearing sky

The rooms

Six rooms: four doubles (one with a bath and the mountain view), a family room in the old hayloft and a small attic double for a walker on their own. Every rate includes breakfast and is published on the rooms page by season (low, mid and high) and by night (weekday or weekend), with tonight's rate worked out from the clock. From £70 a night in the attic to £190 for the hayloft on a summer weekend.

Tonight from the lowest rate on the rooms page; a classic double from £95 on a weekday in low season to £140 on a high-season weekend, the Sugar Loaf with the bath from £110 to £165, the hayloft family room from £130 to £190, the attic single from £70.

The bar and the beers

A flagstone bar with a fire, four handpulls from breweries within thirty miles (the current four are listed on this page), a Welsh cider, a short list of Welsh gins and whiskies, and a pint from £4.40. Open every day from noon; the Wednesday quiz, a folk session on the first Thursday, and the Six Nations on the one screen that only comes out for rugby.

A pint from £4.

The restaurant and the Sunday roast

A thirty-six-cover dining room off the bar with a short menu that changes with the month: Welsh lamb from the farm up the hill, beef from Brecon, trout from the Usk, a pie, a fish, a vegetarian main that is not an afterthought, mains from £14.50. On Sundays the roast runs in five sittings from half past twelve, twenty-four covers a sitting, £18 for one course, and the roast page shows the covers left in each sitting.

Mains from £14.

Walkers, dogs and bikes

The inn sits where the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal towpath meets the lane up Table Mountain, with the Beacons Way past the gate and the Sugar Loaf and the Blorenge across the valley. A boot room with a drying rack and a hose, towels for dogs, a lockable bike store with a pump and a track stand, a packed lunch for £9.50 ordered the night before, and three walks from the door written up with times and the pub at the end.

Nothing to stay dry: the boot room, the drying rack, the towels and the maps are free.

Weddings in the barn

The stone barn across the yard, restored in 2016, seats eighty at long tables for a wedding breakfast and holds a hundred and twenty for the evening, with the inn's own bar, the garden to the canal and the six rooms for the wedding party. £2,200 for the barn from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning including the six rooms on the Saturday night, a three-course feast at £48 a head, and a party evening in the barn for £650. About fifteen weddings a year, one a weekend.

The barn £2,200 from Friday 2pm to Sunday 10am, including all six rooms on the Saturday night; the feast £48 a head for three courses; the evening food £14 a head; drinks at bar prices or a package at £28 a head; a party evening £650.

Christmas and New Year

Christmas at a pub with a fire: Christmas Day lunch at £95 a head in two sittings (noon and 2:30), a three-night Christmas in the rooms with lunch included, Boxing Day breakfast and a walk up Table Mountain with Huw, New Year's Eve dinner and a band in the barn for £65, and the bar open every day except Christmas evening. The Christmas week is high season for the rooms; December bookings open on the first of September.

Christmas Day lunch £95 a head, under-twelves £35; the three-night Christmas in a room from £420 for two including lunch; New Year's Eve dinner and the band £65, under-sixteens £25; Boxing Day breakfast and the walk £15.

How the inn is run

Four things about the place.

An inn since 1664

The date is over the door and the deeds agree. It was the coaching stop between Abergavenny and Brecon before the canal came in 1812, then the canal pub, then the village pub, and it has never been anything but a pub with beds upstairs.

Not on the booking sites

No room has ever been on a booking site, which is why the rate on this website can be the real rate with breakfast in it. Ring, email, or use the form; Nia replies within the hour while the bar is open.

Welsh beer, Welsh lamb

Four casks from within thirty miles, cider from Raglan, lamb from the farm up the hill, beef from Brecon, trout from the Usk, vegetables from Llangynidr, and bread from the bakery in Crickhowell every morning.

Open to the village, always

Weddings in the barn, Christmas lunch, a full house of walkers: the bar stays open to the village through all of it, because the locals were here first and will be here after. The quiz has not missed a Wednesday since 2010.

A room with the rate on the page, a roast with the covers left, a bar with the village in it.

The rooms page works tonight's rate out from the clock, the roast page shows what is left in each sitting, and one form books either, a table, the barn or Christmas. Nia replies within the hour while the bar is open; nothing is charged until we confirm.

Book a room The roast sittings