Lovely 2 Bed home in Fownhope, England

In a part of the west of England designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, our cottage overlooks our 9 acre traditional cider orchard and the valley beyond. It is outside the village of Fownhope, midway between Ross-on-Wye and Hereford, with the Wye Valley walk only metres away and within easy reach of the Malverns, Forest of Dean and the Welsh Marches.

Ross is a small town with a great farmers market on the 3rd Friday in the month. Ledbury, (5 miles away) is a delightful little old town with narrow, cobbled streets and some good tea shops. Hereford is the ancient capital of the county, with its cathedral housing the Mappa Mundi and a chained library. You can do trips up the Wye from the mediaeval bridge over the river.

The Cottage is furnished simply, but comfortably, with 2 woodburning stoves, full central heating and a well equipped kitchen. The location is quiet and not overlooked. It's great for bird watching (siskins, spotted woodpeckers, coal tits, long tailed tits, blue tits, a willow tit, pheasants, chaffinches, gold finches, dunnocks, robins, jays, thrushes, blackbirds, crows at the bird feeders; and buzzards, green woodpeckers, kites in the orchard). There are fallow deer, dormice and badgers in the surrounding woods. The deer are often to be seen in the orchard, or in our neighbours vineyard.

Outside there is a small terrace with a pic-nic table, where you can eat overlooking the orchard. There is a garden with a sloping grassed area (a bit risky for ball games, but if the sheep are not in the orchard you can play in there) and a big flowered area. At the lower end of the garden is a small vegetable patch and the old outside toilet, by which you can get a signal for most mobile phones.

The area is great for river swimming in the summer; and the Wye can be canoed from Hay down to Chepstow, where it joins the Severn. The Wye and its tributaries offer superb fishing (game and coarse).

There are good country pubs in surrounding villages,selling excellent quality locally sourced food at reasonable prices.

We let the Cottage out (see website, link below) and most of our guests come back year after year. Above all, the Cottage is a place of peace and tranquillity in an area whch remains unspoilt.

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