It’s the year of many 30th birthdays amongst my group of school friends, and party one-upmanship reached new heights when twenty of us drove out to Wales to stay in a Grade 1 Listed mansion called Treowen in Monmouthshire. I’m talking four floors, grand pianos, a library, a games room, fireplaces galore, a priest hole (!), and more. It comfortably sleeps 25, and there’s space in the banqueting hall to seat ninety if you fancy catering for that many!
The 17th century mansion is surrounded by a 400 acre estate of farm and woodland with sweeping views to the Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons. A short drive away you can find the charming towns of Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye, the ruined abbey of Tintern, the scenic delights of the Wye Valley, the Forest of Dean and more. That said, if you are anything like us, you’ll probably spend an entire weekend playing murder in the dark, sardines, and cricket (watch the electric fence), followed by whiskies in front of the fire. Remarkably, it’s very affordable to stay there if you take a big enough group, so get yourself organised before they start charging a fortune for it!
