In a sublime, sylvan setting in the Lower Wye Valley this Nineteenth Century cottage exudes rural charm and character, while having benefitted from sympathetic modernisation.

With a delightful farmhouse kitchen, living room with a cosy wood burning stove, three comfortable double bedrooms, surrounded by nature and with grounds of nearly 2.5 acres, this enchanting property has all the essentials for a family looking for to get the best out of country living.

"It's a magical house and it has made a brilliant family home. We were living in Bristol but we wanted to bring our children up in the country. We found this place, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by all this greenery and fell in love with it. It's a place that has shaped us, rather than us shaping it. It's a lovely, safe environment where the children had lots of freedom."

The whitewashed, stone-built property, with a slate-tiled roof, sits on the side of a wooded valley in a secluded yet accessible location, 2.7 miles (4.3 km) from the village of St Briavels. It is within easy reach of the A466 which provides access to Chepstow, 6.6 miles (10.6 km) to the south and to Monmouth, 9.8 miles (15.8 km) away, both of which offer a choice of shops, schools and recreational facilities. Situated above the River Wye, on the edge of the Forest of Dean, it is surrounded by nature and wildlife, with access to miles of footpaths and multiple opportunities for outdoor pursuits.

The property's grounds include a field which has been allowed to develop into a wonderful wildlife habitat, having formerly been used by the vendors for keeping donkeys, a pony and goats. There are various outbuildings, one formerly used as a stable, which have potential for conversion into ancillary accommodation, subject to planning.

Step inside:- - Thought to have been built in the mid-1800s and extended in the 1970s, the cottage has a welcoming ambience, with plenty of large, double-glazed, multi-paned wooden casement windows flooding it with light and providing lovely views of the gardens and natural, wooded surroundings.

A wide, glazed, enclosed entrance porch, which doubles as a boot room and cloakroom, gives access to a lounge/music room from which stairs, with a decorative wrought iron handrail, rise to the first floor. A wide opening leads through to the attractive living room, which has windows to two sides and a cosy log burner set on a stone hearth in an original brick-built fireplace.

From the back of the lounge/music room there is a half-height door ("just to keep the dog in") which opens to a lovely, spacious farmhouse-style kitchen, with a quarry tiled floor and Shaker-style kitchen units under a wooden worktop. There is an integrated electric oven, an LPG gas hob and space for a dishwasher. Alongside the space for an American-style fridge freezer, there is useful built-in shelving.

There is plenty of room for a long, farmhouse-style dining table and French doors can be thrown open from the kitchen straight to a paved terrace, providing ideal indoor/outdoor entertaining space. "That's where we eat when it is nice, surrounded by the sounds of nature."

Easily accessible from the kitchen is a utility room, with built-in kitchen units under a wooden worksurface, plumbing for a washing machine and space for a dryer and a freezer. There is a wall of handy pantry shelves for storing packets and tins. Between the kitchen and utility is a lobby area with cloak hanging space. An attractive pine ledge and brace door with traditional door furniture opens to a downstairs WC.

Upstairs there are three double bedrooms, including the principal bedroom which has windows to two sides, one overlooking woodland views and the other looking out over the garden and field. "It faces west/north west and in the evenings gives lovely views of the sunset."

The principal bedroom benefits from a modern ensuite shower room and the two further bedrooms share a family bathroom, which has Mandarin Stone floor tiles. The main guest room has a wall of fitted wardrobes and the third double bedroom, currently used as an office with a single guest bed, has a generous amount of built-in book shelves.

Outside - There is a right of access to the cottage along a privately owned track. The cottage is approached from the track through a wooden five bar gate which leads to a large gravelled parking area at the front of the property, where there is room for multiple cars.

There is an area of terrace in front of the porch, thought to be paved with the original paving stones from the cottage. Alongside the cottage is a single-storey, stone-built outbuilding. One part of this has a large window and a glazed roof and the vendors use it both as a potting shed and also as a place to sit and enjoy the garden whilst listening to classical music. Next door to this is a storage area, formerly used as a pony stable.

To the side of the house are two raised, walled terraces. On the top, gravelled terrace there are two metal raised beds used for growing flowers for cutting. The lower, paved terrace is edged by a flower border, with steps leading down to a gently sloping lawn. "In the evening, those terraces are a lovely place to sit and watch the sun go down with a G and T." Facing the terraces is a single storey workshop/storage area/boiler room, which could potentially be turned into a home office. Furthermore, in one corner of the field is a field shelter, which could have potential to be turned into a studio or ancillary accommodation, subject to planning.

At the back of the cottage is a former vegetable growing area, with several wooden raised beds. To the side of the potting shed cum garden room there is also an area with a shed where the vendors used to keep chicken and goats.

Beyond the gravelled parking area is the field which the vendors originally used for donkeys and a pony. Since the children moved out we have let it go wild to attract the birds, insects and wildlife. This time of year, we are out of step with the modern world we don't put the TV on, we just sit outside watching the bats and house martins flying around and all the other birdlife. We gets lots of different birds here, including several pairs of Greater Spotted woodpeckers that come to the bird feeder. We also have green woodpeckers up in the field and in terms of raptors, we get the occasional Red Kite, Buzzards, Kestrels, Sparrowhawks, Goshawks and lots of owls.

The scenic woodland location is surrounded by wonderful walks. "You can walk down through the woods to the River Wye at Bigsweir Bridge." The vendors' children also used to enjoy making dens in the woods, canoeing on the River Wye and mountain biking. "They had an idyllic country childhood."

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