The Hay Loft; Best Place To Stay For The Brecon Beacons?

It’s been a stressful couple of weeks over here. So we headed off for a much needed last minute weekend break, in the picturesque Welsh countryside.

Wales is the ideal place for enjoying peaceful waterfall walks, afternoon strolls, and scenic mountain hikes. Perfect for an outdoorsy weekend of getting our blues & greens, which is exactly what was on our agenda.

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The Hay Loft in Clyro

We found this beautifully converted hay barn on Airbnb in a pretty little village called Clyro. A village that’s 1 mile away from Hay-on-Wye and situated just on the outskirts of the Brecon Beacons National Park in South Wales.

As the Hay Loft is very secluded, so you’ll need to drive along narrow single lane roads to reach it – something we’re pretty accustomed to living in Somerset! But you’ll be rewarded with breath-taking views along the route, and treated to the peacefulness that comes with being out in the sticks.

We were seeking a bolthole of peace and quiet and thats exactly what we got here. There’s a couple other properties around, although we never heard a peep from anyone during our stay. So if you’re looking to shy away from the world for a few days, here you can do exactly that.

From the Hay Loft it was around a 40 minute drive to get to the base of Pen Y Fan in the Brecon Beacons. A hike which was top priority on our list of things to do during our stay, and it didn’t disappoint.

Parking & garden

The Hay Loft has it’s own private parking under the car port, so you don’t need to stress about finding a parking space or paying for parking during your stay here.

Theres a decent sized private garden too which would be glorious to enjoy a BBQ in the summer months. A perfect spot to relax on the sun loungers and soak up the afternoon sun with a good book and glass of wine.

The kitchen

You enter the Hay Loft through a side-door in the carport. Where you’re instantly welcomed with a staircase that takes you straight up to the main living area.

Once upstairs you’ll find yourself in the apex of the property. The ceiling and walls are entirely covered in wooden cladding that has been painted in a tranquil creamy-white. A style that I personally love, as it creates a soft cosy vibe and adds lots of texture to the space.

There’s also an exposed rustic steel beam which spans the width of the open plan room, adding even more character to the room.

Theres a fantastic sized kitchen up here that’s fully equipped with a hob, oven & slimline dishwasher. Along with all of your pots, crockery, cutlery and utensils too. The only thing that’s missing is a washing machine, which could potentially be an issue on longer stays.

They also provided, salt, pepper, some herbs, tea leaves (bit fancy), coffee and a pint fresh milk in the fridge. As we rocked up around 9pm the milk and tea was greatly appreciated. Cheers Jeremy.

Dining room

For easy dining, theres a small breakfast bar with stools which sit right next to a lovely Juliet balcony. The large balcony doors flood the room with natural lighting and provide a gorgeous vista of the Welsh rolling hills and patchwork fields.

For more formal dining, you’ll find a wooden dining table with chairs for two.

Living room

Next to the dining table is a deep, and super comfortable L-shape sofa thats covered in an array of scatter cushions. We quickly crashed here after hiking up Pen Y Fan!

Just to note there is no TV at this Airbnb. Make sure you bring Netflix with you if you want to watch your favourite tv series whilst you’re away. We brought our IPad and propped it up on the coffee table in the lounge which worked a treat.

The Hay Loft’s Shower Room

The shower room is a good size and modern with a combination of yet more wooden cladding and dark, slate-grey tiles.

A rather large basin floats under a steam-proof mirror and Velux window, and behind the door there is an impressive walk in shower with a large rainfall shower head.

The water was always lovely and hot, and we were provided with some mini L’occitane toiletries. In the shower nook, there were opened bottles of Original Source shower gel and shampoo availble to use too.

I used my own toiletries, but it was nice that they had provided some for anyone who forgot to pack their own.

The Airbnb host had provided the fluffiest towels from The White Company which were uber soft & luxurious.

Cosy Bedroom

The Hay Loft has one bedroom, which is beautifully styled and has a super comfy king size bed. Although we did laugh at how high up it was!

The duvet was super snuggly and there were four plump pillows, all dressed in soft white bedding – always a winner. Draped over the foot of the bed was a heavy green bed throw, to tie in with the green wooden headboard.

A black out blind and curtain kept the light out, treating us to a much needed Sunday morning lie-in. After hiking up Pen Y Fan the day before, this was exactly what we needed.

There was an open clothes rail too if you wanted to unpack. Something we rarely do on our weekend trips away.

My final thoughts

In short we loved our weekend here.

The property was spotless, it provided all the essentials that we needed and it was a great location for what we wanted too. I’ve only marked provisions down a little bit, as compared to some other Airbnb’s we’ve stayed in (like this one) we got a lot less.

My only comments would be perhaps the outside could do with a little more landscaping to pretty it up a bit. The inside is so pretty, that I feel the outside doesn’t fully do it justice!

Then again, maybe thats just due to the time of year.

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