Self catering cottage, Knighton, Wales

Laurel cottage was ‘The Old Knighton Fire Station’ during the C19th, when it housed ‘The Old Squirter’, a hand operated pump on wheels, probably the oldest in Wales. Now the cottage with its integral stables still retains much of the charm of the ‘Fire Station’ days, having been sympathetically restored. It has two large bedrooms that can sleep up to 5 people, a fully equipped kitchen, a shower room, and a comfortable sitting room with a wood-burner. There is also secure storage for cycles and other equipment in the stable, and parking space for 2 cars. Rates vary between £212 and £540 per week, depending on the season.

The cottage is a listed, beamed, stone cottage situated on the edge of the small market town of Knighton in the Welsh Marches. The Offa’s Dyke Path and Glendower’s Way can both be seen from the bedroom window, stretching up into the beautiful Mid-Wales Hills where after only a few minutes’ walking you can be alone with the skylarks, the circling red kites, and, of course, the sheep.

Knighton has all the shops you will need – including a butcher, a baker, 2 groceries, and a supermarket – plus 4 pubs and 3 cafes, all in easy walking distance. It also has the excellent Offa’s Dyke Centre where the history of the Dyke is graphically set out to add to the pleasure of walking the hills. Knighton can be reached by train on the Heart of Wales line that runs from Shrewsbury to Swansea, with Knighton Station just over the town bridge in England.

Knighton is the perfect centre for walking and cycling, and there are countless other attractions nearby in the historic Marcher countryside. Into Wales you can find Powys Castle, the lakes of the Elan Valley, a waterfall higher than Niagara, and the site where – as legend has it – King Arthur proposed to Guinevere. Into England is Ludlow, set in the blue remembered hills of Shropshire, the black and white villages of Herefordshire, and Hereford Cathedral with its Mappa Mundi.

The cottage is dog-friendly!