Ty Kate, Blaenau Ffestiniog

Ty Kate is a stone end-terrace cottage in Tanygrisiau, a village about a mile up the road from Blaenau Ffestiniog on the edge of Eryri. It has two bedrooms, a woodburner, a well-equipped kitchen and a small terraced garden, and the appeal for anyone arriving with a dog is what sits immediately outside the door: the lake at Tanygrisiau and the waterfall above it are minutes away, and the tracks climbing towards Cwmorthin and the old quarry workings give you a proper hill walk without getting back in the car.

Guests travelling with dogs consistently describe the cottage as a home-from-home rather than a holiday rental, and that is fairly clearly the point of it. Dogs are made welcome without fuss, the ground floor is compact and easy to keep on top of after a wet walk, and the woodburner comes up again and again in winter stays, which matters when you have a soaked dog to dry off. Parties with more than one dog have stayed here without running short of room, though this is a small cottage and a large breed plus a full party would feel it.

The garden is enclosed, but guests have reported the steps in it as loose, so it is worth walking the boundary yourself before letting a dog out unsupervised. Cleanliness is the one criticism that recurs in guest reviews generally - detail-level rather than severe, but frequent enough to mention. A few guests have also found the cottage smaller than they expected, and the electrics have tripped on occasion.

The host communicates well and quickly, which guests raise repeatedly, and the cottage draws returning bookings. Blaenau Ffestiniog is a mile down the road for shops and the railway, and the coast at Porthmadog is around twenty minutes.

Best suited to a couple with one or two dogs who want walking straight from the door and a warm, characterful base rather than a polished one.