The Beacons Way past the gate, the canal towpath from the garden, a boot room, a drying rack, a bike store and a packed lunch for £9.50
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.
Half the people who stay here arrive on foot or wet, and the inn is built for it. The back door opens into a boot room with a heated drying rack that will dry a soaked jacket overnight, a hose for boots and dogs, towels on a hook, and the maps for the three walks we have written up on the wall. Nobody has to apologise for mud.
From the door: the canal towpath runs flat east to Gilwern and west to Talybont (two hours each way, a pub at both ends); the lane up Table Mountain (Crug Hywel) goes from the top of the village to the fort in an hour and a half and the view is the whole valley; the Sugar Loaf is a three-hour round trip across the river and up; and the Beacons Way passes the gate for anyone walking the whole thing. The three local walks are written up with times, the muddy bits and the bus back, on a sheet you can take, and Huw will tell you honestly which one is too much for the weather.
Dogs: in the bar, the garden and two rooms (the Canal room and the Hayloft), £10 a night, with a bed, a bowl and a towel; not in the restaurant at the roast, but a dog can sit with you in the bar at any other meal. Bikes: a lockable stone store off the yard with a pump, a track stand and a basic toolkit, free with a room and £3 a day for passing riders; the Taff Trail and the canal both run past, and the climb up the Gospel Pass starts in Hay, forty minutes away. A packed lunch (a doorstep sandwich, a Welsh cake, fruit, a flapjack) is £9.50 ordered by nine the night before; a flask is filled for £2.
Three walks from the door
The towpath to Gilwern
East along the canal past the aqueduct to the Bridgend Inn at Gilwern and the X43 back, or walk it back for the pint.
Table Mountain
From the top of the village up the lane and the field path to the Iron Age fort, the whole valley below. Boots; it is boggy at the top.
The Sugar Loaf
Across the river at Crickhowell bridge, up through the woods and along the ridge to the summit, and the Harp in view most of the way down.
What is included
- A boot room with a heated drying rack and a hose
- Towels and bowls for dogs; two dog rooms
- A lockable bike store with a pump and a stand
- Three walks from the door, written up
- A packed lunch £9.50, a flask filled £2
- The Beacons Way and the canal towpath at the gate
What it costs
Nothing to stay dry: the boot room, the drying rack, the towels and the maps are free. A packed lunch £9.50, a flask filled £2, a dog £10 a night in the two dog rooms, the bike store free with a room and £3 a day without. The rooms page has every room's six rates and tonight's picked out; the roast page has the sittings with the covers left.
Questions about walkers and dogs
Can we leave bags before check-in?
Yes, all day, in the boot room, from whenever you arrive, and after check-out too. Walk, come back, collect them, have a pint.
Is there a bus back from the walks?
The X43 runs along the A40 between Abergavenny and Brecon through Crickhowell, and the sheet for each walk says which stop. Huw will also run two people back from Gilwern or Talybont for the price of a pint if the bus has gone.
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.