Best Horsey Places to Live in Mid - West Wales?

[Miss_Millie]

Hi everyone,

My partner and I are planning on moving to somewhere in Mid - West Wales next year. We are currently in the South, living in the suburbs and we want to live in a more rural, peaceful location, surrounded by nature. We both work from home full time (have been doing so long before the pandemic) so very open to all/any locations as we aren't tied down to any particular area. We will probably be looking for a detached house with a small amount of land.

I'm hoping to buy my first horse in the next couple of years, so wanting to move to an area that will have good riding schools/livery yards, good hacking off road if possible as I will be a 'happy hacker' more than anything else.

Are there any areas that you would recommend as being particularly lovely to put down roots? We will be taking some weekend trips in the near future to explore potential areas

Thanks, I really appreciate any advice!

MM

 

[Carrottom]

I can recommend Carmarthenshire for the peaceful, rural life. It is varied though with access to off road hacking. There are numerous livery yards, some have beach access, some more competition yards.

 

[Miss_Millie]

I can recommend Carmarthenshire for the peaceful, rural life. It is varied though with access to off road hacking. There are numerous livery yards, some have beach access, some more competition yards.

Thanks so much for your response Carrottom, Carmarthenshire is one of the areas I have been looking at so it's helpful to hear that there are lots of options for livery and hacking

 

[Archangel]

I'm in Carmarthenshire, it is very quiet and dark. Internet is a bit wobbly but I work from home and manage. Brechfa Forest is great hacking. Llanllwni Mountain has a very good DIY yard and great outriding. Pembrey has a great beach. Cynghordy Forest is great too. Further up the Cambrian Mountains and Radnor way are also lovely. It rains a lot!

 

[cremedemonthe]

I'm in Carmarthenshire in a rural location called Tanglwst, no bridlepaths round here other than the horsetrail which is about 3 miles away but it does have a large car park for you to park a horsebox . No footpaths here that are not blocked or maintained. Riding school about 6 miles away and few livery yards dotted around.
Good luck with the house search, there's some nice properties out there. we had months of searching and saw loads of bad ones but in the end we found the one we wanted.
Oz (Saddler)

 

[Miss_Millie]

Thanks so much for your responses guys, that's another two votes for Carmarthenshire then! It has certainly been an area we've been looking at as there are lots of nice smallholdings that pop up and it's only a couple of hours from where we are now/not too far from family.

Archangel, thank you for the specific location suggestions - I've been doing some research since and it's nice to see the nearby riding clubs too. Quiet and dark sounds good to me - I like my own company and am used to the often gloomy welsh weather. When it brightens up it is glorious though! I think a lack of light pollution would be nice too. We have a street light opposite our current house which shines right through the bedroom window at night, it is very annoying haha.

Oz, I think I've read your thread from a while ago when you were looking to move, I found it really helpful. Hope you're still loving the rural welsh life, I've been living in Wales for many years now but so excited to be in a quieter location surrounded by nature. A lot of things you said about why you wanted to move resonated with me. We are in the suburbs right now and whilst we are lucky to have a large garden, we are surrounded by other houses and it can get really noisy at times/there isn't much privacy. We'd love to get chickens too but want to wait until we have much more space for them.

 

[Steerpike]

I moved to Ceredigion in April, a bit further away from major towns so definitely quiet, quite a few bridleways and quiet lanes for hacking and close enough to get to the Cambrians. Lampeter, Aberaeron both nice small towns then you have Carmarthen and Aberystwyth for bigger mainstream stuff.

 

[Miss_Millie]

I moved to Ceredigion in April, a bit further away from major towns so definitely quiet, quite a few bridleways and quiet lanes for hacking and close enough to get to the Cambrians. Lampeter, Aberaeron both nice small towns then you have Carmarthen and Aberystwyth for bigger mainstream stuff.

This is really helpful, thank you! I think I saw on another thread that there's a PDF with all of the bridleways in Ceredigion, I think it was called Ceredigion on Horseback? There were loads of routes, it looked to be impressive.

April wasn't long ago, are you enjoying the area so far?

 

[Steerpike]

Absolutely loving it, we have had to do lots of fencing but looking forward to exploring more and everyone is so friendly!

 

[Archangel]

Just spotted this for sale by auction Smallholding Lovely area.

 

[Miss_Millie]

Just spotted this for sale by auction Smallholding Lovely area.

I saw that one too, really beautiful! It needs work but is an excellent price for the amount of land you get. We aren't quite ready to put our house on the market yet but when we are, that is certainly the kind of property we will be looking out for

 

[Gingernutter]

Thanks so much for your responses guys, that's another two votes for Carmarthenshire then! It has certainly been an area we've been looking at as there are lots of nice smallholdings that pop up and it's only a couple of hours from where we are now/not too far from family.

Archangel, thank you for the specific location suggestions - I've been doing some research since and it's nice to see the nearby riding clubs too. Quiet and dark sounds good to me - I like my own company and am used to the often gloomy welsh weather. When it brightens up it is glorious though! I think a lack of light pollution would be nice too. We have a street light opposite our current house which shines right through the bedroom window at night, it is very annoying haha.

Oz, I think I've read your thread from a while ago when you were looking to move, I found it really helpful. Hope you're still loving the rural welsh life, I've been living in Wales for many years now but so excited to be in a quieter location surrounded by nature. A lot of things you said about why you wanted to move resonated with me. We are in the suburbs right now and whilst we are lucky to have a large garden, we are surrounded by other houses and it can get really noisy at times/there isn't much privacy. We'd love to get chickens too but want to wait until we have much more space for them.

I'm up on Llanllwni Mountain and easy access into Brechfa Forest, fabulous riding. But a lot of Carmarthenshire does not have much.in the way of riding, bridleways are few if any in most of the county. Do your research thoroughly before buying ! Over the years have seen many folk move to Wales thinking that the riding will be amazing only to be seriously disappointed !

 

[Gingernutter]

I'm up on Llanllwni Mountain and easy access into Brechfa Forest, fabulous riding. But a lot of Carmarthenshire does not have much.in the way of riding, bridleways are few if any in most of the county. Do your research thoroughly before buying ! Over the years have seen many folk move to Wales thinking that the riding will be amazing only to be seriously disappointed !

Prices have also gone insanely expensive since covid struck, this 3 acre smallholding has just come on the market, pre covid it would have been round the 275k, certainly not worth what is now being asked for it, not sure it has much riding either
https://www.morgananddavies.co.uk/property/2329706-cellan-lampeter-sa48-8jb/

 

[Miss_Millie]

Prices have also gone insanely expensive since covid struck, this 3 acre smallholding has just come on the market, pre covid it would have been round the 275k, certainly not worth what is now being asked for it, not sure it has much riding either
https://www.morgananddavies.co.uk/property/2329706-cellan-lampeter-sa48-8jb/

Thank you so much for the advice! I'll be sure to research well. Yikes, that is crazily expensive for what it is. It's so frustrating how much the prices have hiked up since covid, I hope that they calm down again soon but it isn't looking likely.

 

[Gingernutter]

Thank you so much for the advice! I'll be sure to research well. Yikes, that is crazily expensive for what it is. It's so frustrating how much the prices have hiked up since covid, I hope that they calm down again soon but it isn't looking likely.

Thank you so much for the advice! I'll be sure to research well. Yikes, that is crazily expensive for what it is. It's so frustrating how much the prices have hiked up since covid, I hope that they calm down again soon but it isn't looking likely.

Prices don't appear to be going back to normal in this area ... pre Covid mid, SW, W Wales you could find smallholdings for sensible money, that bungalow with 3 acres shows how ridiculous prices are now!

 

[Miss_Millie]

Prices don't appear to be going back to normal in this area ... pre Covid mid, SW, W Wales you could find smallholdings for sensible money, that bungalow with 3 acres shows how ridiculous prices are now!

OH and I were looking to move in 2019, you could get a smallholding in Ceredigion with 4 acres for under £200k at the time. We decided to save one more year and then Covid hit. I'm a bit gutted that we didn't make the move sooner, although we are fortunate to be home owners rather than first time buyers.

 

[Gingernutter]

This area has always been a good one to find smallholdings cheap....sadly no bargains now.