About 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.

Location

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 and surrounds

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.

Why come here?

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.