The Old Storehouse

The Old Storehouse
01874 665 499  
oldstorehouse1001@gmail.com 

 

The Old Storehouse


The Old Storehouse is a comfortable and unfussy place to stay, outside the village of Llanfrynach in Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park. The bedrooms are large and en-suite, there's a sitting room with an open range, a conservatory, books and birds and a garden leading down to a canal. We also have wi-fi and erratic mobile reception.

The house is in the Usk Valley (MR SO 086258 Explorer 12 sometimes marked as a museum) and we are four miles south east of the small market town of Brecon. Built in 1824 as a storehouse for grain (to feed Cardiff) and wool (for Bristol and beyond), it's a curious mixture of new and comfortably worn, with low ceilings making it seem rather old fashioned. The house creaks from time to time, but this, and the birdlife, are often the only sounds from the deep peace of a Welsh National Park – except for summer bank holidays.

The house has been converted from a working building into a tranquil place, in a beautiful and accessible part of Wales. The Monmouthshire and Brecon canal, built to serve the area over 200 years ago still runs at the foot of the garden and there's a house punt, in graceful retirement after 35 years of hard labour on the Cherwell, for anyone wanting to explore by water in the summer. The views stretch over fields and hills to Pen y Fan, the highest peak in southern Britain.

Guests come to stay for all sorts of reasons – en route, writing, bringing instruments to play, painting, walking or bicycling, and quite often simply sitting in the garden reading and sleeping. The Storehouse had a brief working life, abruptly stopped by the arrival of railways in the 1840's that took away transport from the canals. Several short adventures have seen it emerge finally as a relaxed house for all seasons.

Wildlife

Buzzards, herons and red kites fly overhead and swans (cygnets too) and ducks rest on the lawn. There is constant small bird activity in the garden and hedges; bats and sparrows nest in the roof (The RSPB described the house as not quite falling down, ideal for sparrows) and they are joined by swallows and swifts in the summer.

Dark skies

Outside the house at night there is not a lot of light pollution and we are a dark sky reserve, the first in Wales, awarded by the International Dark Sky Association. For around 120 nights a year, mostly in winter, the sky is clear and offers anyone with a telescope views into deep space.

The house

With the best will in the world, the house will horrify anyone who doesn't like spiders, is used to a warm T shirt wearing ambient temperature or is upset by dusty ledges and leaves blown in. Outside doors are usually open in the summer and there are cats, swans, chickens, moorhens and ducks. The conservatory is also home to field mice and voles in the winter – it's a very lived in house by both humans and animals. We are not smart, for people wanting top of the range places. If these things present problems for you, there are more conventional places to stay nearby.

But for those of you able to spend more than a brief night here, I hope you will feel comfortable in making the transition from guest to someone who will use the house as a second home; dressing gowns and slippers at breakfast if that's how your day begins, and equally welcome in the kitchen as well as the sitting room, conservatory or garden.

Children and dogs

Children and dogs are always welcome too, provided they restrain their natural instincts to chase the cats swans and chickens; and with the usual parental vigilance caveats.


Peter Evans

Updated 17 March 2024

 

 

Photo: View of the house

Photo: the punt

Photo: Morph and swan

Photo: guests

Photo: House from the canal

The Old Storehouse, Llanfrynach, Brecon, LD3 7LJ    01874 665499
oldstorehouse1001@gmail.com ©2024 The Old Storehouse