Last Updated on 24 April 2024 by Colette
We were lucky enough to spend the first week of our summer holidays at Cwcw Barn at Penygaer Farm, Llandovery. This modern, spacious barn conversion (previously home to cows – much to Amy’s delight!) is set on a hillside in rural Carmarthenshire, ten minutes outside of Llandovery on the edge of the picturesque Brecon Beacons National Park .
Now in the interests of full disclosure, Cwcw barn (Cuckoo barn) is owned by an old friend of my Dad’s, however our stay was paid for and I haven’t been asked to write about it!
Cwcw barn sleeps up to 6 in three bedrooms making it perfect for larger families like ours. Next door is Owl Barn which is a little smaller and more modern in style. Mum and Dad have stayed their previously and loved it – they had hoped to stay there again last week however it was already booked so Jon hosted them across the courtyard in his farmhouse whilst Aunty Nic stayed with us in Cwcw barn. This actually worked really well – Dad and Jon have been friends for 50 years and don’t get to see each other all that often so there was plenty of catching up to be done (and more than a few bottles of wine consumed!)
There are no pets allowed in Cwcw Barn or Owl Barn so Poppy went to stay with Dave’s mum for the week!
Getting to Cwcw barn
We arrived at Cwcw barn on Saturday afternoon shortly after our 4pm check in time having driven around 3.5 hours from our home in Manchester. We stopped after a couple of hours for lunch at the Cross Guns, Oswestry which was fine but in all honesty we’d have been better off going to the McDonalds we passed a little further down the road as it would have been much cheaper and a lot faster!
The latter part of the drive to Penygaer Farm is slow but beautiful – and a lesson in the fact you’re not going to get anywhere quickly for the duration of your stay in Carmarthenshire.
Google Maps took us directly to Penygaer Farm without any issues but we were grateful for Jon’s clear directions as we might not have been quite so convinced by the 2.5 mile drive up a narrow lane otherwise – it felt like it went on forever, but reading Jon’s instructions as we went meant we knew we were on the right track! There is parking for two (or three cars at a squeeze) right outside Cwcw barn.
Cwcw Barn – self-catering accommodation for six
Cwcw Barn is a three bedroom self-catering property with a large double bedroom with king size bed for Dave and I, one large twin room with en-suite bathroom (and a very powerful shower) which Chloe and Aunty Nic shared and then a small twin room for Ben and Amy.
The bed in our bedroom was very comfortable and we benefited from fabulous full length curtains which did a super job of blocking out the early morning light and I slept like a baby from the very first night of our stay which is unusual for me. Chloe said her bed was very comfortable, Nic struggled a bit but I think this was mainly due to not being used to sleeping in a single bed any more!
We appreciated the instant hot water for showers and both Mum and Nic commented on the softness of the water (they have very hard water at home so always notice the difference when washing their hair).
The living areas of Cwcw Barn comprise of a large kitchen dining space and a cosy but spacious living room. The kitchen table has chairs for six but we comfortably sat eight (using the garden furniture from the courtyard) when Mum and Dad joined us for dinner and we spent several evenings simply sat at the table chatting.
The living room, with two sofas and two chairs, has plenty of seating – my most favourite place to sit was in the corner of the living room by the window where I could look out down the road and across the hills. The wood burner (although not necessary at the end of July) adds to the cosy feel of the room and I think I could happily while away some gloomy winter days tucked up in the barn. Although we watched very little TV during our stay, Jon did let us know that Netflix was available to us – not that we told the children that!
I took full advantage of the washing machine in the kitchen to do a couple of loads whilst we were there so that I didn’t have as much to bring home (why on earth have I never done that before?) The weather wasn’t great for drying but there’s plenty of space in the kitchen to have an airer or two out.
Cwcw barn had everything we needed for a week long stay – and the one thing we didn’t have (decent sized wine glasses), the host quickly provided for us.
Mind your head
The external doors at Cwcw Barn are very low so be aware that if you’re anything above about 5ft 5, you’re going to have to duck. I’m 5ft 9.5 and had to duck to get in and out of the barn. However, it’s really obvious that the doors are super low so Dave (who is 6ft 5 and has to duck for doors anyway) actually only banged his head once and I think dad did too (in fact so did the host but that might have been to do with the wine!) Once inside the barn there is absolutely no issues with height – the ceilings in the living areas and hall were all vaulted with the bedrooms and bathrooms being a standard flat ceiling. Everything feels really spacious.
Surprisingly good WiFi
Obviously we didn’t go on holiday in rural Carmarthenshire expecting particularly good internet speeds or network coverage but we were actually pleasantly surprised. In fact the WiFi was so good that Ben was able to have hour-long live coding lessons with only minimal issues. In fact the only time we came across any problems was when I tried to send a number of large video files to a client – upload speeds weren’t great and it took a lot of hours for the files to finally upload (meaning the connection for anyone else at Penygaer Farm that day was absolutely rubbish!) So whilst, you might not want to work whilst you are staying at Cwcw Barn, it’s nice to know the option is there!
Book a grocery delivery to Cwcw Barn
Whilst you can have your groceries delivered directly to the barn, we chose to just take our shopping with us and then top up from the local Co-Op in town (this is about a ten / fifteen minute drive and whilst it’s a reasonable sized Co-Op you probably wouldn’t want to do your whole weekly shop there). We had cracking steaks from the butchers in town and great sausages too so definitely recommend trying them and also discovered that La Patisserie in Llandovery did some lovely cakes too – we wished we’d popped in earlier in the week as the bread looked fab. We did drive to Morrisons in Brecon one day thinking it would be a decent sized supermarket but it wasn’t worth the 40 minute drive – definitely look at booking a delivery to the barn for ease!
Drive slowly
As I mentioned earlier in the post – you are not getting anywhere quickly in this part of Wales. With narrow roads, tight bends and blind summits – you don’t want to be driving at any pace. It became a standing joke that everything is around 1.5hrs away from Llandovery – of course this isn’t strictly true, however do be prepared for some long slow journeys. The 2.5 mile lane to the main road takes around 6 minutes in the car (assuming you don’t encounter any sheep, cows or other vehicles – all of which happened at some point during our stay).
Many of the roads we travelled during the week were single track and you need to be ready to reverse (especially if the oncoming vehicle is very big, or has a trailer.) A 19 mile drive to the supermarket took 40 minutes, Aberystwyth was only 45 miles away but took the best part of two hours (Google maps said under 1.5hrs). Essentially you are not going anywhere quickly from Cwcw Barn – slow and steady is the order of the day. And anyway, who wants to rush when there’s scenery like that to take in!
What is there to do when you’re staying at Penygaer Farm?
We could have easily rocked up at Cwcw barn and barley left again – taking in the views, enjoying the peace and watching the sky for red kites and buzzards. The kids had space to roam both in the private gardens to the side of Cwcw Barn but also the surrounding fields (there is a map in the dresser which shows which fields you are allowed to walk through) – the rope swing in the field opposite was a big hit!
However, because we were on holiday with our wider family, we didn’t want to sit around doing nothing all week – so you can read more about what we got up to here: Seven days in LLandovery. And, Jon has a huge list of recommendations on his Airbnb listing too!
Read more UK self-catering accommodation recommendations here
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