Wern Manor

Between the mountains of Snowdonia and the beaches of the North Wales coast, Wern Manor offers self-catering on an impressive scale. It’s a Victorian manor house, built in Jacobethan style, and stands in 15 acres with views of Snowdon’s foothills. Book it and you and your extended family or group of friends can comfortably enjoy time together in a fascinating historic property with plenty of options for days out nearby. There’s a lovely sandy beach just two miles away; the same distance as the delightful harbour town of Porthmadog and the edge of Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park. Criccieth, Portmeirion and the Llŷn Peninsula are just a little further away, but all within 10 miles.

Even if it wasn’t in such a good location, Wern Manor would be a great place to stay. The main house sleeps up to 14 and an optional two cottages are available for larger groups. Whoever you come with, there’s enough to keep everyone entertained. Its grand social spaces start at the manor’s carved front door. You enter into a panelled hall that gives way to a sitting room with a snooker table and Chesterfields around a log-burning stove. There’s an atrium and a drawing room that’s got cinema seating and a big screen, table tennis and a pool table, too.

Beyond the big rooms once used by the gentry, you’ll discover that although the holiday let is all on the ground floor, there’s a kind of upstairs-downstairs appeal. The dining room is in the old kitchen; the kitchen in the former scullery. The sleeping accommodation is in the old servants' wing. Glossy, glazed brickwork lines the corridors, there’s plenty of parquet flooring, and a decorative fireplace in virtually every room. The retained character features are incredibly pleasing, but the standard of accommodation has been elevated from Victorian times. Comfy king-size or double beds and en-suite bathrooms for all of the five double bedrooms see to that. In addition to the double rooms, the former Servants’ Hall can be used as a playroom-cum-bedroom for up to four children.

The optional additional cottages are the two-bedroomed Butler’s House, sleeping four, and the three-bedroomed Bothy, sleeping up to five. These are attached to the manor house but are also self-contained, meaning there’s always room for groups to spread out. And beyond the stone walls of this impressive Grade II-listed building are its equally impressive gardens. There are lawns, a stream, a pond and a wild woodland all available for you to wander, walk the dog (they are welcome here), or perhaps, play croquet.