Staying Places: Palé Hall

Palé Hall: country-house elegance in Northwest Wales
From celebrity sheep to guests including Queen Victoria and Winston Churchill, this Snowdonia-area hotel has stories to tell

Guests at five-star Relais & Chateaux property Palé Hall in North Wales can drift off to sleep by counting the property’s resident celebrity sheep. The small flock of champion Valais Blacknose grazing on the Palé Hall lawns are there to enchant the guests at the late 19th century Grade II listed country house on the edge of Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park. 

Unlike their skittish cousins, these black-kneed sheep are as curious and affectionate as puppies, with trailing eiderdown-soft fleeces. Guests are encouraged to visit and pet gentle head ram Karter and his buddies. The Michelin Key hotel is in a former private residence and onetime hunting lodge of the Duke of Westminster, set in 50 acres of sculpture gardens and wooded parkland. With 18 guestrooms in the honey-coloured sandstone main house, plus four garden suites, it has all the hallmarks of a luxury inn. 

The service is impeccable, yet unstuffy. There’s also the cachet of the famous guests who have bedded down here. Prime Minister Winston Churchill stayed at Palé Hall in the 1950s. His second-floor tower room is now the Churchill Suite, with a stained glass vaulted ceiling above the canopied bed. The sitting area pays homage to the wartime prime minister. The glass coffee table has a gleaming Spitfire engine base and a refurbished Second World War ejector seat is next to the oak desk. Queen Victoria splashed in the same bath that’s in her namesake suite. She stayed here for 10 days in 1889. The original cast-iron hearth where her breakfast was prepared is now a showpiece in the Hearth private dining room. Newly appointed chef-partner Luke Selby creates seasonal menus there and in the Henry Robertson Dining Room off the cheery main reception area.

Owners Anthony and Donna Cooper-Barney say they have ambitions to make Palé Hall the best hotel in Wales. Concierge Gareth Jones wants to add some star power. He says Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds, co-owner of Wrexham AFC (a soccer club) has an open invitation to stay. - LINDA BARNARD