Anyone know the Hereford/Leominster/Llandrindod Wells area?

[copycat]

We have booked a last minute weekend away (friday to monday, next weekend) at a cottage near Kington/Lyonshall which is roughly in the middle of the triangle created by Hereford, Leominster and Llandrindod Wells. If anyone is familiar with the area I'd be grateful for recommendations of places to visit with two ds aged 11 and 8. DH and I would be interested to know of anywhere in the region that is particularly scenic and of any nice child-friendly pubs!
Thanks.

I used to live in Llandrindod Wells and work in Builth Wells......

I live near(ish) to Eastnor Castle, it's a nice spot. There's usually some sort of festival going on there in the summer.

oh GOD hwo horrendous

dhs cousin lievs there
once did an cover lesson fro some kids and it was past paper OS map thing( geog of course) of that area

went past her farm

horrenodus wih the llandod thing

What's horrendous ?

What? That I used to live there ?

I have to say that it's not somewhere I'd choose for a holiday.

We had more uncrowded friendly fun in Eastnor Castle Gardens and in Newbridge Farm Park than almost anywhere else we've visited (Devon, Kent, Lakes). Didn't Thomcat go to Eastnor's festival last year, or was it somewhere else?

I don't know Kington/Lyonshall very well but Herefordshire is lovely. I've just come back from two weeks a little way from there in the Hereford/Monmouth/Abergavenny area. If you want complete time out, beautiful rolling hills and can cope with rain (it is on the Welsh borders after all!) then Herefordshire is fantastic. I have had many many happy holidays in Herefordshire over the last 35 years (my parents have a holiday home there). I'm not sure I would go there for a weekend though - but that's because it means a 3.5 hr journey for us. If I ever move out of London then that's the part of the world I would go. Apparently Hereford came out very high in one of those surveys of happiness - I think it's a great little town.

Lots of lambs right now. Very green, and great walking.

hereford is god forsaken
al pound shops and tattoo parlours

imho

I think we must have visited different places cod - I don't think I've ever seen a tatoo shop in Hereford - it's not what comes to my mind at all! But then I guess we mostly shop around the cathedral area, so maybe I haven't explored the darker regions...

Goodness! I'm sorry I asked now girls No, seriously, your comments are ALL welcome. I shall just have to go to Hereford now to check out exactly how awful it is. Can't be worse than Croydon

In my defense, I picked the location because the accommodation looks so lovely \link{http://www.premiercottages.co.uk/webdirect.asp?ID=63\here} and Herefordshire is not a part of the country we've ever visited before (although maybe there's a reason for that!). My Aunt and Uncle used to live in a lovely village just south of Ross-on-Wye and I've never been further West or North of that area other than to North Wales. Anyway it's only for four days; I'm sure we'll survive if I pack four umbrellas and eight wellies ...

Thank you for all your suggestions. I'm very gald that you enjoyed your holidays nooka and Marina. Any further ideas NDP, as you lived/worked in the area or have you erased all memory now that you've escaped

I like the one in Tuscany best
Having now properly spotted your boys' ages they might enjoy the Westons tour in particular, and maybe also the Mappa Mundi as part of a morning in the sink of rural impoverished gothicism that is Hereford today Lush cakes and good coffee in the Cathedral tearooms too.

hmm yes the tatto shop is ont he road out of hereford to the north west
youll go apst it

and there a polish food shop that looks ratehr interesting

whichc house are you going for

it is lovely countryside if your family likes walking, nothing like a muddy tramp racing each other to the next stile etc...hereford reminds me of banbury but the mappa mundi is an important doc, also possible to do mountain biking and climbing

FWIW - Hereford is a CITY as it has a Cathedral !

Don't care what you say - it is fabulous there ! Cathedral area particularly lovely - Church Street full of quaint individual shops - shopping has improved immensely - great park for kids near swimming baths - lots of room to fly kites, play football etc and duck pond at Castle Green always good for a bit of duck feeding !

Posh nosh now available at Left Bank - not cheap but excellent !

Copycat - you will enjoy it I'm sure - and it is WAY WAY WAY better than Croydon for definite !

cod, we are staying in The Forge - don't send the mil round though, will you ! (although I'm sure she's very lovely).
Thanks zippi and Norah and Marina - the coffee and cakes at Hereford Cathedral have sold it to me.
Second thoughts, cod, how are your mil's babysitting skills? ....

have a lovely time and post when you get back

there is also rally car driving but it is about £250 per day i think! and red kites if i didn't mention them

excellent! she had all three dsses iwht d and v at easter

it doe slook nice
you MUST go to the stagg

copycat, I too shall be in Hereford this coming weekend! But that's because we are visiting my parents who live there - I was born in Llandrindod, lived in Builth until I was 2 then in Hereford until I was 18 when I saw the light (just joking!), came 'oop north' to University and haven't been back for any length of time since.
I must say I wouldn't like to live in that area now but it is fabulous to visit - whatever some on here might say!

Hope you have a great time - please come back and tell us all about it next week.

Norah, whereabouts did you used to live and when did you live there?

We used to rent a house long term outside Hereford towards Hay. In the days pre-children it was brilliant - lots of walking, remote, uncrowded, cloae enought to Wales for when DH got any ancestral yearnings. We've just had a week in a cottage between Ross and Hereford and I would say that perhaps Hereford's charms are best described as..erm..uneven. Lots of pound shops and cars selling add on spoilers for cars. The Primark seems to lack the sense of irony that my one in Wandsworth has! I took the children to the swimming pool and I was definitely the thinnest person there, by some margin (I seem to remember when we were there a lot we used to eat lard to combat the cold). And the only one of either sex without a tattoo (so that tattoo parlour must be thriving).

Definitely the land that time forgot. Hay is quite nice outside festival time, if a little chi-chi. Hay Bluff fantastic for kite-flying. The walking round there is great if your children are old enough (mine aren't). Oh and they are digging up the bridge on the road into Hereford and the queues are horrendous

Ok, I'm a huge Primark fan (I love a bargain) but I think you've persuaded me to skip the Hereford Primark experience, Anchovy! Whilst I rarely pass up an occasion to feel 'thin' and, of course, 'tattoo-free' maybe I'll skip that opportunuty too especially if I have to waste valuable cake-eating time sitting in a traffic jam to get there. Which road and bridge into Hereford, from where, has the roadworks and horrendous queues Anchovy?

Cod, from their website, the menu at the Stagg sounds devine but it is quite expensive especially when you factor in 2 x ds who haven't quite developed a palate for fine cuisine! I guess there is a children's menu? Or, alternatively, is your mil busy this weekend? . Sunday lunch might be an option though ...

Hey CookieMonster, lets hope we get some dry weather this weekend eh? Yeah, yeah, I can dream ... just call me a hopeless optimist in a whisper, okay. I'm sure we are going to have a wonderful time, come rain or rain (grrrr)

Its the road from Ross into Hereford - the main one: there is a bridge over the river (Wye, I'm guessing) to get into the City centre and accordingly not many roads into Hereford. We got stuck very badly there about 2 weeks ago - and it looked like pretty major/long term roadworks.

God, I'm dull: discussing roadworks in Herefordshire on the internet with people I've never met!