Conion Ganol, Aberdaron

We have been many times to Conion Ganol, first my wife with her parents, then my wife and I, then with our own kids and, now that we’re older, just the two of us again. And we keep going back because it is, just simply one of the very best places to be in one of the most magical, beautiful places on earth. Seriously. It is a simple old cottage, restored to be comfy rather than fashionable and it smells of gorse bloom rather than Gucchi. The stairs to the upper floor are steep and need care, and the ceilings low but that just added to the magic for our kids (eat your heart out, Jack Sparrow!), but the beds are truly comfortable, which is exactly what you need after a day on the glorious, endlessly varied beaches of Lleyn or up in the hills that contrive to touch the sky, even though you can be at the top of most of them in a couple of hours. It’s fair to call the kitchen compact but it has everything you’re likely to need and everything works (well, it did for us!). There’s a woodburner for autumn evenings and perfectly good room heaters for other times. But it’s when you step outside that your breath gets taken away, by a view that almost defies description. Conion is high up on the flank of Rhiw hill (Mynydd Rhiw) and looks eastwards, back along the backbone of Lleyn and out over the wide and dramatic bay of Porth Neigwl (Hell’s Mouth) and beyond that into Cardigan Bay, with Snowdonia spread out in front of you from Snowdon in the north to Cader Idris in the south. On a good day you can make out the whole sweep of Cardigan Bay and at night the lights of north Pembrokeshire glitter in the far distance. But, above all, it is the utter quiet of the place, silences you can actually hear and a restfulness that penetrates to your core. I could go on. And on. About the small settlements round and about (there is a baker in Aberdaron, and I swear that the man is a magician and his wife a wizard…..). If you worship nightlife and the Costa del Sol, it may not be for you, but for me and mine Conion is the very best and where I’d rather be right now.