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Gwytherin,
Abergele,
Clwyd
LL22 8UU
Booking Line: 0845 45 66 399
TIME, thankfully, moves at a snail's pace in Gwytherin. A tiny hamlet of little more than a dozen houses, a pub and a church deep in the embrace of the Cledwen valley, up in the mountains that separate Llanrwst from Abergele, tradition means a lot here.
It was the setting for Ellis Peters' first Brother Cadfael novel, A Morbid Taste for Bones, based on the tale of St Gwenffrewi and of how her remains were moved from here to Shrewsbury by Benedictine monks in 1137, nearly six centuries after her death.
Largely a farming community, it's been treated as an Aunt Sally by the trends and tribulations of the 21st century, including being haunted by the spectre of foot and mouth disease twice this year. Yet its spirit remains defiant.
The Lion Inn has been at the centre of village life for four centuries, and remains the lynchpin which holds it together.
You might well be treated to folk singing, story telling or even Morris dancing within its ancient walls. Then again, the locals might prefer to entertain themselves over a game of cards or chess.
That bane of modern life, the mobile phone, with its inane trilling and the senseless chatter it generates, is yet to make much of an impact here.
It doubtless won't be long, but in the meantime the traditional red telephone kiosk just outside, decorated with its own vase of freshly cut flowers, offers ample links with the outside world.
The Lion, however, has had to move with the times - albeit at its own leisurely pace - to keep at bay the wolf that slobbers so greedily at many rural inns' doors these days.
Originally a row of farmhands' cottages dating back to the 17th century, it was refurbished just a couple of years ago.
Nowadays modern demands mean it's just as much into top notch food offerings and fine wines, selected by Master of Wine Julia Harding, as in its more rustic appeal. Its Sunday roasts have proven to be particularly popular.
Yet neither has it forgotten its roots as a pub, with the bar offering a selection of lagers, beers, malt whiskys and real ales, served to the crackling accompan- iment of a blazing log fire in winter.
Fishing, by methods legal or otherwise, has always been a means of supplementing both the wage packet and the protein in the local diet down the centuries.
These days it's more of a leisure pursuit, with the Lion able to offer its paying customers free fishing rights at a number of popular lakes and rivers through its corporate membership of Bodelwyddan Game Anglers.
Some of the more productive pools on the Cledwen are close enough to the Lion for its anglers to pop back for a pint or a spot of lunch. Others, sensibly, just stay the night.
