It’s a tale to melt the heart of every dog owner. One day back in the 13th century, the Welsh prince Llywelyn The Great went hunting, leaving his faithful hound Gelert at the palace with his baby son. On Llywelyn’s return, Gelert joyfully sprang into his master’s arms – but his jaws were smeared with…

After a tiring day running around after my two-year-old bundle of energy I felt justified in kicking back with a couple of beers. Not only were the drinks justified, they were highly appropriate because our Kent holiday home for the week was a converted oast house. A 19th century invention, oasts were designed for drying…

With kisses goodbye and a ‘‘be good for nanny and grandad” we set off for our first night away from our two-year-old daughter. Anticipating a little parental anxiety, we’d booked a hotel not a million miles away from our Droitwich Spa home. In fact, it was only 10 miles away. Yet the peaceful Brockencote Hall,…

In Pitlochry the locals call the police if their garden gnome has blown over in the wind. Residents also alert the local constabulary if their washing machine breaks down and if the X Factor phone line is constantly engaged. That’s because even the tiniest of problems seem like emergencies when you live somewhere that’s virtually…

The picture-postcard Perthshire village of Kenmore has more than one claim to fame. Tiny in size but big on history, it boasts the oldest inn in Scotland and the oldest tree in Europe and has welcomed both Queen Victoria and the poet Robert Burns. It’s an idyllic, 18th century model village that’s almost an island,…

Avid readers of these travel pages may recall that my boating holidays are never without incident. There was the time when traffic backed up after someone (me) couldn’t work out how to raise the barriers at the Shirley drawbridge on the Stratford Canal. Then there was the time, near the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, when we…