St Davids · Hotel
Contemporary art hotel converted from a 19th-century windmill on the edge of St Davids, with a three-rosette restaurant and coast path access.
Twr y Felin takes its name and its shape from the nineteenth-century windmill tower at its centre, which now houses the hotel's most sought-after room. Around it sits a modern extension finished in pale stone and glass, and the whole thing works better than the description suggests — the conversion is confident rather than apologetic, and the tower is left visibly as a tower.
There are 21 rooms and suites, all done in a restrained contemporary style with pale walls, good beds and generous bathrooms. The hotel bills itself as an art hotel and means it: more than a hundred commissioned works by contemporary Welsh artists hang throughout, most of them responses to the Pembrokeshire landscape, and the effect is a long way from generic hotel decoration. Rooms in the tower are circular, reached by a spiral stair and worth the extra.
Blas, the restaurant, holds three AA rosettes and is one of the two or three most serious kitchens in the county. It leans hard on local supply — St Brides Bay shellfish, Preseli lamb, Pembrokeshire early potatoes in season — with a tasting menu alongside the carte. Breakfast is a strength. There is a bar in the old mill base, a small library and parking on site, but no spa or pool.
The location is the clincher for walkers. St Davids Cathedral is a five-minute stroll down the hill, and Whitesands, Porthclais and the St Davids Head circuit are all within ten minutes by car. It suits couples, keen walkers and anyone travelling primarily for food; families with young children will find it quiet and formal, and the sister property Roch Castle or a coastal cottage would serve them better.