by Sherelle Jacobs, The Telegraph, March 5, 2018
"I might have to give you a piggyback across this puddle," bellowed Ross, my guide, thigh-deep in water. "I don’t mind either way," I replied; I gulped with relief inside. He picked me up. Thus began several seconds of leg-flailing, weight-conscious, nylon-rubbing embarrassment. On the other side I spied my mum (5ft 3in and tiny by comparison) as she pulled off her role as passenger more gracefully.
I was on a private trek in Snowdonia National Park – part of an upscale outdoorsy package organised by five-star Palé Hall. Wet Welsh weather wasn’t surprising for the time of year. Still, it conjured atmosphere. Streams swollen with rainwater crashed and foamed down the hills. Mist was chomping its jaws over Snowdonia. The peak of the latter was sprayed with ice.
I shivered and briefly fantasised about the walnut-walled warmth of my hotel base. Palé Hall is the kind of place that designers who spend their lives in Pinterest focus groups think people like me don’t like. The world is convinced millennials want hotels to look like abandoned factories. This is already getting old. Forget dangly light bulbs and exposed brick. I’d prefer my weekends away with overstuffed cushions and evening billiards. And damp, cold, clean country air, of course.
"Take deep breaths. Focus on sounds. Be in the moment," said Ross, as we dabbled in a spot of mindfulness. We went back in time, too, trudging across former copper mines. Broken pulleys swung in the wind. "A hundred years ago, Welshmen scraped at this soil for metal," said Ross. I wondered whether the sparkling, rusty red bracken fields unfolding for miles were nature’s memorial to their toil.
We were also on a booze hunt. For the area’s abundance of plants and berries have spawned an unlikely invention: Snowdonia gin. It was out of season for junipers (abundant from spring to autumn) but we found quirky ingredients used in the local tipple – sea buckthorn, and yellow-flowered gorse. "They smell of coconut in the summer," said Ross.
By the end of our outing I was pumping with early-stage hypothermia and smug walker’s adrenalin. Reward was immediate: a tasting at nearby Forager’s Gin.
"What do you think?" asked Chris Marshall, the brand’s owner, as I sipped his Black Label a little too fast. "Round and complex," I chanced.
• The best country house hotels in Wales
"Yes, and with richness from the sea buckthorn," effused Chris, oblivious to my ignorance and rising tipsiness.
We got a privileged insight into one of Britain’s most exciting drink start-ups: how Chris forages for botanicals, uses mountain water from Snowdonia’s hills and turned down Waitrose because ramping up production would wreck the taste.
Palé Hall delivers on the recuperation front. That evening, after a soak in a claw foot tub perfumed with Lanvin bath suds, I drank tea by the grand hall’s crackling fire with Mum, as a harpist played. It’s not so much a hotel as a private home. We browsed the library for bedtime books, all dusky pink walls and art deco lamps. We tinked champagne glasses in the parlour, with its gilded ceiling frescoes of the four seasons and cabinet stuffed with glassware (all gifts from the owners’ wedding day).
Thirty-something couples were just as evident as older guests. And what young person wouldn’t want to spend a weekend swinging back gin cocktails under a Georgian stained-glass ceiling, and feel like a lord or lady from Downton Abbey?
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The mission to be as non-hotelly as possible continues in the bedrooms. Floral wallpapers look like hand-painted watercolours. Oak dressers rub together with squishy, bottom-swallowing sofas and Chinese lacquered stools.
Food did not disappoint. Michael Caines – who was at the forefront of the hotel’s launch – has faded into the background as a consultant, with Gareth Stevenson, ambitious head chef, now strutting his stuff.
Our tasting menu delighted with its fresh Welsh produce and punchy Asian flourishes. Tempura broccoli fizzled flirtily on the tongue, and came with a cheese and mashed potato mousse whipped to a near vaporised state. Smoky dashi broth gently lapped over seared scallops peppered with pine in a show-stopping sea-meets-soil dish. I also loved my plate of glossy venison loin, with earthy aromatics surging from a spicy squash purée.
Next morning, after a thoroughly non-hipsterish breakfast (lava bread instead of avocado), we took one last walk around the grounds. Rabbits and partridge were ducking back into forests as it started to snow. It was the perfect moment. And nor did I spoil it by taking a picture on my camera phone.
Doubles from £190 B&B; Gin-venture package from £821 per person for two nights based on two sharing, including breakfast and dinner. One room for guests with disabilities (01678 530285; palehall.co.uk )
• Read the full review: Palé Hall, Snowdonia
This article was written by Sherelle Jacobs from The Telegraph and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.
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