Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sleeping
Gliffaes Hotel
( 01874-730371;
www.gliffaeshotel.com
; s/d from £95/108; )
This Victorian mansion makes
quite an impression with its Romanesque towers rising through its thickly wooded
grounds on the banks of the Usk. Standard doubles start from £160, but the considerably
cheaper 'small doubles' have the same facilities. It's about 4 miles northwest of Crick-
howell, off the A40.
HOTEL
£££
Talybont-on-Usk
Tiny Talybont-on-Usk has a venerable transport heritage for its size: an aqueduct takes the
canal over the Caerfanell River here, and a disused railway bridge cuts dramatically
across the village. Just to the south is the epic Talybont Reservoir. A hostel and a handful
of decent pubs make the village a pleasant - if uneventful - holiday base.
Sleeping
Danywenallt Youth Hostel
( 0845 371 9548;
www.yha.org.uk
; Talybont-on-Usk; dm/r from £18/36)
Handsome converted farmhouse
located beneath the dam of Talybont Reservoir, just outside Talybont. Self-catering facilit-
ies are limited, but a pukka restaurant provides terrific and affordable food, including
three-course dinners.
HOSTEL
£
Llangorse Lake
Reed-fringed Llangorse Lake (Llyn Syfaddan), to the east of Brecon, may be Wales'
second-largest natural lake (after Llyn Tegid), but it's barely more than a mile long and
half a mile wide. Close to the northern shore is a
crannog
, a lake dwelling built on an artifi-
cial island. Such dwellings or refuges were used from the late Bronze Age until early me-
dieval times. Tree-ring dating shows that this one (of which only the base remains) was
built around AD 900, probably by the royal house of Brycheiniog. Among the artefacts
found here was a dugout canoe, now on display in Brecon's Brecknock Museum; other
finds can be seen at the National Museum Cardiff. There's a reconstruction of a crannog
house on the shore.
