LIZ BIRD discovers her perfect combination – a National Trust house in Wales in which you can spend the night

I’M WALKING through the grounds of Bodysgallen Hall near Llandudno listening to the sound of tinkling water cascading over rocks and breathing in sweet-scented herbs from the 17th-century parterre with its perfectly manicured box hedges.

I turn around to admire the handsome honey-coloured hall replete with stone-mullioned windows and a magnificent tower. It looks like a typical National Trust property but the difference is that you can stay in this one.

Bodysgallen Hall was one of three country houses rescued for restoration and conversion in 1980 by Historic House Hotels. It was then given to the National Trust.

Perched on the western side of Pydew Mountain, this is not just any old country house. Built as the watchtower for the low-lying 13th-century Conwy Castle, which you can see from the upper rooms and from a clearing in the woodland garden, it’s a magnifi cent sight: a medieval stronghold framed by the brooding mountains of Snowdonia National Park.

My idea of a great weekend is no longer shopping with the girls and nights on the town but exploring country houses before the obligatory cup of tea and slice of cake in the tearoom.

I was born to be middle-aged, which is why I am in heaven at Bodysgallen, a luxury hotel with a spa, all the perks of a National Trust property and 200 acres of gardens and parkland I am free to roam at any time of the day.

When I arrived at about 4pm, the hotel was packed with guests sitting in alcoves on squishy sofas and tucking into a magnificent afternoon tea laid out on pretty layered cake stands with dainty china cups. \

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My suite, one of 16 rooms in the main house, is just as welcoming.

It’s classic country house hotel with a king-sized bed and a sleek modern white bathroom with posh toiletries and bathrobes. There are also such thoughtful touches as home-made shortbread and complimentary mineral water. The best thing, however, is the view across terraced grounds with theirornamental pond and walled rose garden.

There are 16 Welsh-stone cottages dotted around the site acting as extra hotel rooms. One is this year being offered for rental by National Trust Holiday Cottages and a few more are earmarked for conversion.

As I wander the extensive grounds I come across what looks like yet another characterful cottage which turns out to be the spa: a Tardis-like building with a pool, gym, treatment rooms and little café opening out on to yet another lawn (there are four full-time gardeners).

Before dinner I head for a G’n’T at the bar in the 17th-century dining room (like most country houses, Bodysgallen has been enhanced over the years with additions from 1620 to 1900) with its chandeliers, oil paintings and large stone fireplace.

This is a fine dining restaurant with well-executed, pretty dishes such as my melt-in-the-mouth, diver-caught sea scallops with sliced truffl e and monkfi sh tail with smoked pancetta, flageolet bean fricassée and braised lettuce.

The next evening I opt for a more relaxed dinner at 1620, a bistro-style restaurant in a 17th-century outbuilding where I try the signature dish of slow-braised lamb “Henry” with roasted garlic marsh and sticky red cabbage, swiftly followed by a banana and butterscotch crumble with honeycomb ice cream.

North Wales is full of medieval castles, from nearby Conwy to Harlech and Caernarfon, which was the scene of the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales in 1969. There’s also the not-to-be missed Italianate village of Portmeirion, the setting for Sixties TV drama The Prisoner; and the vast beauty of Snowdonia National Park.

I’m keen, however, to get my National Trust fix and am spoilt for choice with five gardens and houses within an hour’s drive. My favourite is Erddig, a late 17th-century property surrounded by orchards near Wrexham.

Visitors enter via the laundry, bakehouse and kitchen, a refl ection of the importance the Yorke family attached to its servants.

They commissioned professional photographers to take pictures of their staff, which they displayed around the house accompanied by complimentary verses. Unusual at a time when staff, like children, were to be “seen but not heard”.

The enormous Penrhyn Castle near Bangor couldn’t be more different, created as a flamboyant holiday home for Richard Pennant, the owner of the world’s largest slate quarry nearby. “Everything was designed to impress,” says our guide as he shows us around one of the most spectacular examples of the Norman revival with lavish state rooms, elaborate carvings, plasterwork and a one-ton slate bed built for a visit by Queen Victoria. She refused to sleep in it, complaining it was like a tomb.

Like many National Trust properties, the most interesting part of the 300-room castle proves to be the servants’ quarters, from the Bell Corridor where a boy would sit and monitor which of the 60-odd bells rang to the numerous
pantries and sculleries. A perfect slice of Victorian life below stairs.

● GETTING THERE:
Bodysgallen Hall & Spa (01492 584 466/www.bodysgallen.com) offers doubles from £165 per night (two sharing), B&B.

National Trust (0844 800 1895/ www.nationaltrust.org.uk).

Visit Wales: 08708 300 306/ www.visitwales.co.uk