Powys is the biggest county in Wales and the emptiest, and its fireside cottages reflect that: they are farmhouses, barns and estate buildings spread thinly along river valleys, not rows of lets in a resort. The twelve below fall into three loose clusters. Five sit around Brecon and the northern edge of the Beacons, from the Abercamlais estate on the Usk to an upside down farmhouse at Cantref. Four gather near Hay, three of them in or just outside Clyro. The last three are further out, on a hilltop above Painscastle, by the Edw at Cregrina, and over the border in Herefordshire's Olchon valley, which is the single house here that is not in Powys at all.
What they share is the reason a dog owner books in October rather than June. Each one has an open fire or a log burner, an enclosed garden named in the owners' own listing, and a dog allowance set as a number on the Wildpack stays directory. That number runs from one dog at the smallest lodge to four at the largest farmhouse, and most of the twelve stop at two. Seven are graded five star, and the walking starts close: the shortest gap between a door and a route we list is 2.2 miles, though two of the Radnorshire houses are a long drive from any named walk.
Abercamlais Estate - The Lodge
The Lodge is the smallest house on this list and the most private, a single building at the top of the Abercamlais drive west of Brecon with no neighbour in sight of it. It is graded five star and built for two people and one dog, with a king size bedroom, a storm porch with a seat for unlacing boots, and a lounge that the wood burner can warm through in about twenty minutes. Behind the kitchen the garden is enclosed, with furniture and a charcoal barbecue against a planted border.
The real asset is outside the fence. Guests may walk the estate's own stretch of the Usk, through wild meadow on either bank, which means a dog can be at the river within minutes without anybody getting in a car. The limits are plain, though: one dog only, no room for a third person, and the nearest route in our directory, the canal from Brecon Basin to the Brynich Aqueduct, is 5.1 miles away by road.
- Sleeps: 2 in 1 bedroom
- Dogs welcome: 1
- Fire: Wood burner in the lounge
- Enclosed garden: Yes, behind the kitchen
- Nearest walk: Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal: Brecon Basin to Brynich Aqueduct, 5.1 miles
- Best for: A couple and a single dog who want a private river and nobody else on the drive
The Firs, Longtown
Strictly, The Firs is in Herefordshire. It stands in the Olchon valley near Longtown, on the English side of the ridge that carries the border, and it is here because the Black Mountains do not stop at a county line and because a party of six with two dogs has few better options in this corner. The cottage has four bedrooms, so nobody doubles up, a bathroom on each floor, stone floors throughout and a log burner warming the sitting room. A stone porch with built in shelves stores the firewood and takes the boots.
The arrival is the clever part. A farm track leaves the valley lane and runs straight into the enclosed gardens, so the car is parked inside the boundary and both dogs can jump out unclipped. The catch is that the owners do not allow dogs upstairs, so they will sleep on the stone floors below. Above the house, Black Hill (Cat's Back) from Olchon Valley is 2.5 miles off, a narrow ridge with England one side and Wales the other, and the valley itself is a dead end lane with no streetlights.
- Sleeps: 6 across 4 bedrooms
- Dogs welcome: 2, kept downstairs
- Fire: Wood burner in the lounge
- Enclosed garden: Yes, reached directly by the farm track
- Nearest walk: Black Hill (Cat's Back) from Olchon Valley, 2.5 miles
- Best for: Six adults and two dogs after dark skies and a border ridge behind the house
Abercamlais Estate - Garden Cottage
Garden Cottage is the other Abercamlais house, a short walk from The Lodge, and it is the place on this list best equipped for a properly filthy dog. A boot room with a dog shower sits next to a shower room for people, and the listing names a drying room too, so three wet dogs and whoever walked them can all be cleaned before reaching the lounge. That lounge has a wood burning stove, and a glazed garden room catches the morning light at the front.
Its garden is walled, the original estate garden, and it belongs to the cottage alone, down a lane with no through traffic. Three dogs is a generous allowance for four guests, but the sleeping is only two bedrooms, which points it at a couple or a young family, not two pairs of friends. For the dogs, Llangorse Lake has a path round its shallow edge, and the Grade I mansion on the estate runs tours of the house and grounds for anybody who wants an afternoon indoors.
- Sleeps: 4 across 2 bedrooms
- Dogs welcome: 3
- Fire: Wood burning stove in the lounge
- Enclosed garden: Yes, an old walled garden
- Dog facilities: Dog shower and drying room
- Best for: A small family arriving with three dogs and a lot of mud
Beacons Field, Modrydd
Beacons Field is a five star house at Modrydd, near the Mountain Centre at Libanus, and its bedrooms are a single, a twin and a double, a mix that fits a family better than a group of couples. The burner is in the lounge. The garden behind is enclosed, with a lawn at one end and a barbecue on the patio at the other, and a garage holds bikes and a deep freezer for a big first day shop.
There are two compromises. Only one dog is allowed against five beds, the lowest ratio of any house here, and five people share a single bathroom, with a downstairs cloakroom taking some of the pressure off. The site has no electric car charging either, which matters on the drive in. What it has is Mynydd Illtud up the lane, an open common of grass, rush and standing pools, plus the Roman fort of Y Gaer beside the river below it. The canal walk from Brecon Basin is 2.4 miles away.
- Sleeps: 5 across 3 bedrooms
- Dogs welcome: 1
- Fire: Wood burner in the lounge
- Enclosed garden: Yes, a lawn and a patio
- Nearest walk: Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal: Brecon Basin to Brynich Aqueduct, 2.4 miles
- Best for: A family of five with one dog and a common to walk it on
The Olive Barn, Clyro
The Olive Barn is built as a square around an enclosed courtyard, so every window looks inward onto the same patch of ground and two dogs out there are never out of view. It sleeps eight on the fringe of Clyro in five bedrooms with three bathrooms. The open kitchen and dining space runs into a lounge with the wood burner, and a second sitting room holds big sofas, a shelf of books, board games and a television, which lets a party of eight split for the evening.
The courtyard has a table, chairs and a fire pit, with hills in view past the roofline. One bedroom is a single in the eaves with limited head height, which is fine for a child and less so for a tall adult. Two dogs for eight people is also a limit worth counting. Above the village the Begwns are open common, and a pub is within a mile. The Golden Valley walk from Dorstone to Arthur's Stone is the closest route in our directory at 4.2 miles.
- Sleeps: 8 across 5 bedrooms
- Dogs welcome: 2
- Fire: Wood burner in the lounge
- Enclosed garden: Yes, a central courtyard with a fire pit
- Pub: Within a mile
- Best for: Two families sharing a house and wanting a second room to retreat to
The Medieval Barn, Clyro
The Medieval Barn shares its address with The Olive Barn and goes bigger in every direction. Its hall is 17m long under a restored oak ceiling, and a log burner at the far end faces three sofas and several armchairs, so ten people can spread out and still be in one room. There are five bedrooms and four bathrooms, including a ground floor double with its own shower room, and a kitchen with a range cooker and a sofa corner.
The walled garden is private and high sided, with a fire pit, a barbecue and seating, and two dogs can be left in it without anyone standing guard. The weak point is the same one its neighbour has: ten guests and only two dogs, so a large party will need to agree whose stay at home. Hay-on-Wye is down the lane, with its bookshops, its reopened castle and a market on Thursdays, and dogs get into more of its shops than you might expect. A pub is within a mile.
- Sleeps: 10 across 5 bedrooms
- Dogs welcome: 2
- Fire: Log burner at the end of the 17m hall
- Enclosed garden: Yes, private and walled
- Pub: Within a mile
- Best for: A big gathering that wants one long room, one fire and Hay on the doorstep
Angelrocks Farmhouse, Painscastle
Angelrocks Farmhouse takes the whole top of a hill above Painscastle, and its ground floor has been opened up around a kitchen with a long island and full width bi-fold doors. It is five star and sleeps ten, with four super king rooms and a twin, three bathrooms and a ground floor shower room and WC that make sense once ten people and two dogs come back in together. The lounge has beams, deep sofas and a wood burner.
The garden wraps round the house and is enclosed, with a patio holding a hot tub heated by an air source pump and a charcoal barbecue. Walking from the gate is good, with grass tracks climbing in three directions and the motte of Castell Paen in the hamlet below. Driving to a named route is not: the nearest walk in our directory is 9 miles away, the furthest of any house here bar one. Two dogs against ten guests is again the constraint.
- Sleeps: 10 across 5 bedrooms
- Dogs welcome: 2
- Fire: Wood burner in the lounge
- Enclosed garden: Yes, all the way round the house
- Hot tub: Yes, on the patio
- Best for: A party of ten who want a fire, a hot tub and hill tracks straight from the gate
Hay Bluff House, Tregoyd
If the log burner is the point of the trip, Hay Bluff House has three: one in each of its two sitting rooms and another in the kitchen, over underfloor heating. It is a five star cruck oak and stone house above Tregoyd that sleeps eight in three bedrooms, and the floors shift level from room to room, with steep stone steps up to the last bedroom. The larger sitting room has a pool table, and table tennis lives in the garage.
Four dogs are allowed, the highest number on this list, and beyond the fenced garden the house owns its fields, so they can run flat out without meeting a road. The house rules need reading first, however. Dogs are to stay out of the bedrooms and off the furniture, and the wood fired hot tub charges extra for its wood. From the foot of the garden a lane climbs to the ridge under Lord Hereford's Knob, and Hay Bluff and the Gospel Pass is 2.6 miles away.
- Sleeps: 8 across 3 bedrooms
- Dogs welcome: 4, not in bedrooms or on furniture
- Fire: Log burners in both sitting rooms and the kitchen
- Enclosed garden: Yes, fenced, with private fields beyond
- Nearest walk: Hay Bluff and the Gospel Pass, 2.6 miles
- Best for: Eight people bringing four dogs that need room to run
Old Crofftau, Cantref
Old Crofftau turns the farmhouse plan over. You come in at first floor level into a living room under the eaves, with exposed beams and stone and a wood burner placed for everyone, and the four bedrooms are all below it, two down a short flight and two more at the bottom of a winding oak stair. There are three shower rooms between eight guests, a tiled farmhouse kitchen with a table for eight, and a 1960s Wurlitzer jukebox.
The layout is the thing to think about before booking. An old dog that dislikes stairs will meet a lot of them between the living room and the beds, though two dogs can settle on whichever floor they arrive on. The enclosed lawn has shrubs, furniture and a barbecue and holds the sun well. For walking, this is the strongest location in the group: lanes climb from the house onto the ridges of Bryn Teg and Cefn Cyff, and the Pen y Fan and Corn Du route begins 2.2 miles away, the nearest listed route to any door here.
- Sleeps: 8 across 4 bedrooms
- Dogs welcome: 2
- Fire: Wood burner in the first floor living room
- Enclosed garden: Yes, a lawn with shrubs
- Nearest walk: Pen y Fan and Corn Du, 2.2 miles
- Best for: Hill walkers who want the Beacons ridges from the door and a jukebox at night
Penycommin, Talyllyn
Penycommin is a straightforward house near Llangorse for five people, in a single, a twin and a king, and its interest lies in the garden. Wildlife ponds sit inside the enclosure and great crested newts live in them, which brings birds and other visitors throughout the year. The lounge has the burner, a television with a DVD player, and a bookcase that has genuinely been filled, with board games stacked underneath.
Ponds and dogs need managing, though. The owners ask that young children are supervised because of the water, and the same caution applies to a dog that likes to swim or to dig; walk the boundary on the first afternoon and see where it can reach. There is one bathroom and a downstairs WC. A pub is within a mile, Cefn Moel and Buckland Hill rise behind the village, and the Brecon canal route is 3.8 miles off.
- Sleeps: 5 across 3 bedrooms
- Dogs welcome: 2
- Fire: Wood burner in the lounge
- Enclosed garden: Yes, with wildlife ponds inside it
- Pub: Within a mile
- Best for: A household of five with two calm dogs and an interest in what lives in a pond
Brook Cottage - Clyro
Brook Cottage is the third Clyro house here, and the one to choose for the garden. It runs along Clyro Brook as a strip of wild meadow cut through with winding paths, with a patio over a small waterfall, benches under trees and a fire pit, and at the bottom stands the old stone ty bach, the privy the cottage used before it had a bathroom. Inside it is low ceilinged and old, the burner sits in the lounge, and a snug opens off it with a desk and a reading lamp.
The meadow suits a dog that likes to follow its nose and suits a ball chaser less well, since it is long grass rather than lawn. Indoors there is just one bathroom for five people, and the twin converts while the third room is a single. A pub is within a mile, and Llowes church, a short way east, keeps the tall carved cross of St Meilig. The Golden Valley walk to Arthur's Stone is 4.5 miles away over the border.
- Sleeps: 5 across 3 bedrooms
- Dogs welcome: 2
- Fire: Wood burner in the lounge
- Enclosed garden: Yes, a meadow along the brook with a patio
- Pub: Within a mile
- Best for: A small family whose dogs would rather sniff than fetch
Ty Canolog, Cregrina
Ty Canolog is a mid nineteenth century stone cottage at Cregrina for six, and the River Edw runs past the end of its garden with a fence between them. That fence is the reason to book it with a water loving dog: the lawn, the covered patio and the charcoal barbecue are all enclosed, and the river is visible but out of reach. Inside, exposed stone and oak beams step down the slope from a lounge with a wood burner to a dining alcove, a kitchen and a utility.
A second staircase from the utility leads to a private twin with its own sofa, which makes the cottage good for a family with teenagers. The cost of all this quiet is distance. The nearest walk in our directory is 10.9 miles away, the furthest on this list, so days out mean either the lanes of the Edw valley, which carry more sheep than cars, or a drive to Aberedw and the Wye at Builth Wells.
- Sleeps: 6 across 3 bedrooms
- Dogs welcome: 2
- Fire: Wood burner in the lounge
- Enclosed garden: Yes, with the river fenced off
- Nearest walk: Offa's Dyke Path: Kington to Hergest Ridge, 10.9 miles
- Best for: A family with a dog that cannot be trusted near a river
Practical Advice for a Fireside Week in Powys with a Dog
A log burner changes how a holiday runs, and so does mid Wales in winter. Points to settle before booking:
- Count dogs against beds. The Lodge and Beacons Field take one dog. Garden Cottage takes three and Hay Bluff House four. Everything else stops at two, including both of the ten bed houses.
- Check where the dogs may go. The Firs keeps dogs downstairs. Hay Bluff House keeps them out of bedrooms and off furniture. Old Crofftau has its living room above all four bedrooms.
- Treat the fire as a hazard as well as a comfort. A guard is worth asking about if your dog is young or likes to lie close, and wet coats steam fast on a hearth.
- Ask about fuel. Check what wood is supplied for the burner before you arrive. At Hay Bluff the wood for the hot tub is charged as an extra.
- Expect sheep on every hill. Mynydd Illtud, the Begwns, Hay Bluff and the Beacons ridges are open grazing, so leads go on above the fields and stay on.
- Remember the water. Penycommin has ponds inside its garden. Ty Canolog fences the Edw off. The Abercamlais houses have the Usk beyond the boundary.
- Plan the drive. Ty Canolog and Angelrocks are a long way from a named route, and Beacons Field has no car charger on site.
Map of Dog Friendly Cottages with a Log Burner in Powys
Plotted together, the houses form a tight knot around Brecon, another at Clyro and Hay, and a looser scatter north towards the Edw and east into the Olchon valley. Use the Wildpack map for the walks and pubs around each house, and to compare the drive from each door to Pen y Fan, Hay Bluff and Llangorse Lake.
11 stays on this pageMap these stays, and thousands more
The Wildpack Map plots every dog friendly walk, beach, stay and attraction we have listed across the UK. Open it to see what else is within reach in Powys, filter by what your dog needs, and get directions to the car park.
What's Nearby?
Guides to pair with a fireside stay in this part of Wales:
- Dog friendly walks in the Brecon Beacons: Routes across the national park, within a short drive of the five Brecon houses.
- Dog friendly walks in Herefordshire: The English side of the border hills, with Hay Bluff and the Wye valley close to the Clyro houses.
- Luxury dog friendly cottages: The national shortlist of high end stays, for anyone happy to travel further than mid Wales.
- Dog friendly off grid cabins in the UK: Stoves without the cottage, for a smaller and wilder kind of fireside night.
- Dog friendly cottages within a mile of a walk: For anyone put off by the drive from Cregrina or Painscastle to a named route.
To see every stay in the county, fire or no fire, go to all dog friendly stays in Powys.
Final Thoughts
Powys suits dog owners who measure a holiday in hours on the hill and want a warm room at the end of them, and who are content to drive for groceries. The group's strength is ground: a private reach of the Usk at Abercamlais, owned fields at Hay Bluff, open common above Modrydd and Clyro, and Pen y Fan within a short drive of Cantref. Its weakness is the dog count, since the two largest houses still stop at two.
Couples with one dog should start with The Lodge. Families have Garden Cottage, Penycommin and Brook Cottage, depending on whether the priority is a dog shower, a pond or a meadow. Large parties should choose between the long hall of The Medieval Barn and the hilltop at Angelrocks, while three dogs points to Garden Cottage and four leaves only Hay Bluff House, with its three fires.
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