Inspiration
Stories from our farm
Read the latest on what we and our guests have been doing.
Walking Paradise
We have a guest staying in one of the Welsh Marches Cottages who is new to Monmouthshire and this part of South-east Wales and he asked for some suggestions for walks including in the Brecon Beacons. Well, the first thing to say is you’ve come to the right place. This...
Purrfect Stay
We are very used to dogs staying at the Welsh Marches Cottages with their humans but we’ve never had a cat stay before…well not in the cottages in their current form. Thirty years ago, when we first moved into Upper Glyn Farm these buildings were a thriving kennels...
A walk on the wild side
Summer has finally arrived on the farm and our wildlife area is coming on a treat. At the bottom of the Glyn Valley, two fields below the cottages, we’ve created a nature reserve fenced off from the horses. Guests are welcome to visit but please keep dogs on a lead on...
Devauden Pilgrimage Walk
Every year in early April Chepstow hosts a popular walking festival, and this year I led 16 visitors on a pilgrimage walk which started and finished on Devauden Village Green. We started at the John Wesley Memorial and visited one converted chapel and six fascinating...
A walk to remember
If the Voilette Szabo trail in Herefordshire was a rainbow then they’d be three pots of gold at the end of it. The six-mile walk takes in the colours and shades of the Herefordshire countryside in all its glory. And the pots of gold? Well Golden Pot I is the most...
Row, row, row your boat
For many people it is a dream to row, row, row their boat gently down the River Wye at Symonds Yat or slightly faster through the man-made grade 2 rapids as I first did as a schoolboy. Many of our guests merrily, merrily include the location for a visit while staying...
Up a Mountain, Down a Beer
I have a tee shirt with the inscription “Up a mountain, down a beer” which, for me, describes a perfect day out but there are variations. Emma and Neil, who stayed in our Sugar Loaf cottage in early autumn, downed a Welsh whisky before going up the highest mountain in...
Black Rock
Black Rock picnic site on the banks of the Severn Estuary at Portskewett is a special place and I am indebted to our first European guests since Covid restrictions were lifted for reminding me just how special. Brecht and Stephanie arrived from Belgium, after all the...
Turning down the volume
Young couple Katy and Cian had their first holiday after lockdown in the Sugar Loaf with 4-month-old baby Dylan and their beagle Hazel. They come from Croydon in south London and immediately enjoyed the peace and tranquillity that the Glyn Valley and this part of...
A tub, train and tunnel
It is not unusual for families to use the Welsh Marches cottages as a place to get together. Some hire all three cottages while others like Laura Shields and her family from Bolton hired the Sugar Loaf and Skirrid to accommodate mum and dad Pat and John, Laura and her...