Last Minute Cottages in Cockermouth

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Arron - Verified booking

  No faults with the location but there were some areas that need addressing.

  The cottage is quite dated but nonetheless, we set up camp. Driving 400 miles and to not have a small milk, tea bags or even a small tin of biscuits would have been a lovely touch. One bin liner provided, no clear instructions of where to leave rubbish, no dishwasher tablets too. Bemused as to why we need to provide our own towels, but the bare essentials for cleaning were not provided. Only found the very vague holiday book late Friday night. Would have been much better placed in the kitchen rather than in the lounge on a shelf. The cottage is dusty, lots of cob webs especially on the the ceilings, and so many flies in the house that our dog was going crazy trying to catch them. Couldn’t go and sit in the grassed area as the grass was at a high level and there were 4 dog droppings found on Saturday when we arrived which I promptly cleaned up. Dust in the blinds - and this was on every single set of blinds in the cottage. Please clean. Also - 1 tea towel. Surely a family of 6-8 would not have been provided with 1 towel for the week? I love the house is quirky with the lounge upstairs. Would prefer a net or something equivalent in the downstairs bedroom as curtains were closed all the time. On the whole, the cottage was ok. We booked this based on the positive feedback, which is slightly concerning considering it wasn’t as clean as it should’ve been. Location was great. Recommend crummock water and lake buttermere for walks. Climbed up Freewith pike with some spectacular views across the valley and even 2 botheys which we’ve never seen before. Whinlatter forest is lovely too! Very picturesque. Would we stay again? I’m not sure. The small touches would go along way especially when 2 people have paid £872 for a weeks stay not to mention being supplied with adequate and sufficient cleaning supplies. Especially as it was made clearly known that the cottage was to be left as it was found.

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• Paul - Verified booking

  We have used Sykes many times and will continue to do so.

  This cottage was in a lovely location, and was well laid out etc. However it could have done with a really good clean. I did leave a note to the owners, so hopefully this has been addressed. In summary : The extractor fan was revolting and needs replacing / cleaning. The lights outside where you park didn't work, and a torch was required to get up the steps to the property. There were no cleaning cloths, or bin bags left, which are useful for the first night. The central heating thermostat needed new batteries and the heating didn't work readily - I am sure these will have been replaced! There was also a revoltingly dirty George Foreman grill which was in one of the kitchen cupboards. The smell it was emitting was putrid, and once it was moved out the kitchen and the cupboard was cleaned it did improve. The master bedroom needed a brighter bulb and some of the knobs on the furniture kept falling off. That said, the bed was super comfortable, linen good quality and clean, the sofa's and lounge was lovely and all the expected facilities in the kitchen were good (except the extractor fan). Hopefully a bit more attention to cleaning will make this property top notch again. Many thanks, Claire Warsop

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• Jonathan - Verified booking

  What a great little cottage this is.

  Just back from a week spent here, Mum, Dad, kids 6 & 8 and Nan and Grandpa. It's a great location for anyone wanting to explore the North Western Lake District with walks a plenty straight out from the cottage. There's a great Kitchen Diner with space for 6 adults to sit around the table comfortably. The view from the ground floor is of the barn directly in front of the cottage but the views from the first floor lounge and master bedroom are beautiful. The lounge is very spacious and comfortable and there's a big TV and strong WiFi if the weather dictates staying inside. We had glorious weather so didn't really need it but in case of rain, there's a good sized boot and drying room with washer and drier. The owners are very friendly and the girls loved playing with Ben the farm dog. Cockermouth and Keswick are both short car rides away and Whinlatter Forest visitor centre is only a mile or two up the road. There are decent pubs serving good food in Braithwaite (Coledale Inn), Loweswater (Kirkstile Inn) and The Wheatsheaf Inn in Lorton (About a 20 minute walk from the cottage). Really impressed to get a call From Sykes on the day after we arrived to check everything was okay. Nice touch.

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• Peter - Verified booking

  We had a lovely stay at Scales cottage, the house is really nice, well located for lots of scenery, walks and location attractions.

  Also a very friendly dog on site who would happily spent the whole week playing catch with our 6 year old given the chance. I was a bit worried by a previous review comment about needing a stair gate as we had our 1 year old son with us, but there are plenty of doors that can be shut to block access to the stairs so wasn’t a problem for us. Only minor criticisms, and to be fair we didn’t bother to raise these with the owners at the time, but they could do with doing a sweep of the household electrical products from time to time as there were several dead light bulbs around the house, and a few instances of flat or missing batteries in TV remote controls and the thermostat which we had to change to get things working. Also there is a barn directly opposite the house which wasn’t obvious in the photos and blocks the view from downstairs, but not really a problem as the living room is upstairs so didn’t spoil our enjoyment in any way. Overall we had a lovely stay and would happily return.

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• Chris - Verified booking

  We had a lovely week staying at Holemire Barn.

  It was very peaceful looking out from the lounge watching the birds and the red squirrels feeding. The owner is lovely and was a great help in supplying us with local knowledge. We have visited the Lakes many times but this was our first stay in the Lorton Vale area. Only two downsides, firstly there is no onsite parking. The description "offroad" parking is inaccurate, as parking is actually on the road, on a slip road area at a T junction opposite the cottage, (it is not a layby, see it on street view). This should be amended in the Sykes Cottages description. Secondly, whilst there is a bench to sit on outside the front door, there is no private outside seating. However, these were minor issues which did not detract from a lovely stay. We would certainly consider going back.

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