Bodysgallen Hall offers all the typical ingredients of a National Trust stately home – creaking floorboards and storied portraits, sprawling grounds and a history of eccentric owners – but with one subtle difference. Rather than shuffling home after closing time, guests can stay on to feast on local meat and seafood in the grand dining room, later retiring to their four-poster bed to sleep amid 17th-century interiors, this being one of the few National Trust-run hotels. As fortune would have it, summer is the perfect time to play lord of the manor here: just two miles north of the hall is Llandudno, a handsome Victorian seaside resort where you can stroll the promenade on a sunny day or push pennies on the rickety pier – the longest in Wales. Alternatively, head a short distance south to the walled town of Conwy, across the river of the same name. The eight sturdy main towers of Conwy Castle have guarded the river crossing since the 1280s, and are now World Heritage listed. Beyond the town, the landscape rises steadily until it reaches the glittering lakes and craggy cwms (theatre-shaped valleys) of Snowdonia National Park. Much of its mountainous reaches are also in the care of the National Trust.
In the Middle Ages, Bodysgallen Hall was a defensive tower house supporting nearby Conwy Castle
PHOTOGRAPHS: KEN KOCHEY, JOHNER IMAGES/GETTY, COURTESY OF JAKOBSGOTLAND.COM, PETER ERIK FORSBERG/GETTY
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