Allt Yr Ynys (pronounced alt-ur-inis) is centred on a beautifully preserved, Mediaeval 16th Century manor house, set in the foothills of the majestic Black Mountains on the fringes of the Brecon Beacons National Park.

A former Les Routiers Welsh hotel of the year, with an award-winning restaurant, Allt Yr Ynys is an excellent base for a wide range of outdoor and indoor leisure and recreational pursuits centred on the hotel's own indoor heated swimming pool, sauna and Jacuzzi.

Conferences and weddings are a speciality. Our main conference and function suite seats up to 100 guests but greater numbers can be accommodated in marquees within the gardens. Civil Ceremonies can also be held in a number of rooms at Allt Yr Ynys, the most popular being our Jacobean panelled drawing room.

Lush lawned gardens lead down to the River Monnow fronting the hotel which, together with the Elizabethan Knot Garden in the walled gardens at the rear of the hotel create perfect gatherings as well as exquisite wedding photographs.

The facilities, setting and location combine to make Allt Yr Ynys the ideal holiday venue as well as for corporate gatherings and entertaining, seminars, team building and leadership courses, and the full range of the social and corporate events.

Our aim always is to make these special, memorable and rewarding.

Facilities

• 19 luxury en suite bedrooms
• 16th Century panelled 4-poster suite
• Award winning restaurant
• Conference facilities for up to 100 delegates
• Wedding facilities for up to 250 guests
• Licensed for Civil Wedding Ceremonies
• Indoor heated swimming pool
• Sauna & Jacuzzi spa pool
• Covered, state-of-the-art Clay pigeon shooting range
• Private course and fly river fishing
• Cider Mill theme bar
• Elizabethan walled knot garden
• 16 acres of landscaped gardens, pasture and woodland
• Activities

Allt Yr Ynys is an ideal base for a wide range of outdoor and indoor leisure pursuits.

The hotel boasts its own indoor heated swimming, sauna and spa bath. For those looking to try their hand at shooting, we have a covered state-of-the-art clay pigeon shooting range. We also offer fishing from the hotel grounds on the Rivers Monnow and Honddu where trout and grayling abound.

Within easy access of the hotel we have some first class walking - the renowned Offa’s Dyke Pathway is only half a mile away. Golfers, of all standards, are also well catered for with seven golf courses close to the hotel - the nearest is only a few minutes drive away. For those seeking more active passtimes, there is horse-riding, caving, cycling, off-road and quad-bike driving, balloonning, hang- and para-gliding and much, much more. The races at Hereford, Chepstow or Cheltenham provide for those of us who enjoy the sport of spectating.

History

Allt Yr Ynys (pronounced alt-ur-inis) is Welsh for a ‘hill sloping from a river meadow’, a reference to the tongue of land between the rivers Monnow and Honddu in front of the hotel, and the gently sloping hill up to the nearby village of Walterstone.

On those typical crisp mornings, be it spring, summer, autumn or winter, the mists rise from the rivers. Illuminated by the dawn sunshine, the hotel gets shrouded by a mystical atmosphere reminiscent of time gone by. It is in these times that the history of the manor house, around which the hotel is based, has grown. An illustrious history by any standards.

It was, from the 11th Century, the ‘cunabulum gentis’ or cradle of the noble and renowned Cecil (originally Sitsylt) family, which first came to fame through Robert Sitsylt, who assisted Robert Fitzhamon in his conquest of Glamorgan in 1091. An antecedent of Robert’s was Rhodri Mawr, King of Wales in the 8th Century. It is said that Robert obtained Allt Yr Ynys through marriage with the heiress to the property, the daughter of Sir John Gwyn. From this family branched off the ‘Cecils’ who eventually became Marquises of both Exeter and Salisbury.

Much of the house remains in its original state. In 1647, the hall was described in a survey as “30 ft. by 20 ft., from which went a wainscotted parlour with the arms of Cecil and de la Hay in the window”. A chapel at the side of the house burned down at the end of the last century. The side wall of what is now our function room is all that remains.

Perhaps the most illustrious of the Cecil’s was David’s grandson, William - Lord Burleigh, Chief Minister to Queen Elizabeth I for all but he last few years of her reign, but succeeded on his death by his son Robert. Subsequent generations of the Cecil family have had public lives and served as Prime Ministers. The current Marquess, Viscount Cranbourne, was until recently Tory Leader of the House of Lords.