Dog Friendly Villas In The Peak District

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• David - Verified booking

  This is a lovely spacious Derbyshire stone cottage filled with interesting period features and antique and vintage items, set in a wonderful village with excellent local facilities such as shops, pubs and eateries.

  The location is wonderful in the very heart of the village with ample parking and with access to the beautiful Derbyshire Dales. The cottage is cosy with comfortable beds and lots of hot water and heating. The kitchen has everything you need with clean ovens and crockery, cookware, etc and the en-suite bathrooms were much appreciated. There was a nice welcome pack with teabags, coffee sachets, biscuits and milk. However… the cottage is very tired in terms of the paintwork, which needs attention, lounge furnishings (very uncomfortable seating with nasty moth eaten cushions and grubby seat covers, threadbare rug and unpleasant dog hair covered throws, which I washed but we didn’t want to use them). The cottage needs a thorough deep clean as there was dust, cobwebs and grime at surface level behind beds, radiators, cupboards and along skirting boards etc. We didn’t go looking for dirt- it was obvious. The cellar, which is very visible from the downstairs toilet, is full of junk and very dirty. The washing machine was dirty and we didn’t want to use it. We did our best to clean the cottage before our family arrived, but the one vacuum cleaner (a ‘Henry’ vacuum in the upstairs cupboard), stank so badly that we had to open all the doors and windows after vacuuming. The bathroom floor cork tiles in the front bedroom en-suite had an unpleasant smell of urine and we had to purchase an anti-bac spray to clean them. No cleaning materials were accessible in the house except the provided washing up liquid and some dishwasher tablets. In the attic bedroom, the roof blind is broken and so it wasn’t possible to shut out the light for our grandson. That room is very basic and in much need of modernisation. The dining room has chipped wall paint, an awful tangle of wiring around the phone and internet router and grubby straw table mats that had food trapped in them. We attempted to clean some of these. There is an old plastic storage box outside the back door in the yard full of something?? covered in moss and one waterlogged log. We bought logs and kindling from the local shop to make a fire and cheer up the cottage. On the first night there was a freshly dead rat right by the back door, presumably killed by a cat as it had a neck injury, which we buried in the garden. This is no fault of the owner of course, but it added to a rather depressing feeling of dirt. We enjoyed our visit to this lovely area, but we certainly wouldn’t stay here again. We heard from a neighbour that Ivy Cottage has just been sold. Is this perhaps why it is looking so run down?

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• Neil - Verified booking

  It was a pleasure to stay at Ivy cottage for a lovely (if rainy) week.

  The cottage is thoughtfully appointed with lovely personal touches throughout - the owners have carefully left many notes with helpful instructions to guide the guests. Three points of note; a) I might recommend that prospective guests be alerted as to the very 'full' nature of the gardens, which do impede access to the front of the cottage with large suitcases. From the roadway to the conservatory entrance, the foliage does over grow the walkway, which made navigation of our luggage a challenge. Since we are from abroad, and travelling for a month, we did have many larger suitcases - perhaps Sykes might consider some form of check-box on their application form to alert the owners to the fact that renters are coming with luggage as such - ? b) We were a little disappointed to have renovation workers begin construction work on an adjoining cottage at 0615 on our final Saturday morning, using the adjoining walkway to gain access around back of the property. The early morning hammering and cartage was a little alarming so early in the day. A gentle chat with the neighbours might avoid this for the next guests. c) a note on the booking form for Ivy Cottage noting that the Pub is 'closed' for the foreseeable future would have been helpful. One filter I rely upon when booking a cottage from Canada, is the close-location of a Pub. Since the 'Quiet Woman' is not open, that might have been good to know. The Royal Oak is nearby, but not really within walking distance. The Pub in Crowdecote was also closed when we walked over High Wheeldon....a similar disappointment. Otherwise, it was a happy and restful week at a lovely cottage in a wonderful region of the UK.

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• Helen - Verified booking

  The cottage was spotlessly clean.

  Beds were super comfortable. Lovely to have a pint of milk, a gorgeous cake and dog treats left for us. Nice living area. Small kitchen but pretty much everything was there. Despite having an area to barbeque, there were no tongs. The location lets it down, sitting between the busy A6 and the A6 filter road means it is very noisy, meaning when you sat outside on the patio the traffic noise was very loud and very fast on the front. Parking is an issue, having 2 allocated parking spaces we had only been there around 10 minutes to a knock on the door from another resident asking us to move 1 car as its so tight to fit 2 cars in!! There are stairs downstairs to the patio and very useful cellar but this meant there were no back doors to any patio so you unable to get a breeze through. Chapel en le Frith was a good base to travel out to places, but a small high street with very few shops/cafea to mooch round, it isnt the place if that's what you want to do. The cottage does accept dogs but not allowed to have a wee on the patio so had to take her out all the time to toilet (we would have washed it down) which was a faff. Also the back gate isnt to the floor so our small dog could have got out under the gate so we had to watch her constantly. Overall we had a really good holiday but would not return to Chapel en le Frith.

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• Claire - Verified booking

  We stayed in this cottage for 1 week and it was perfectly located.

  It is in the heart of Hartington, which has a variety of well-stocked local shops and 2 good pubs (1 being a hotel). There is a parking space outside the front door, but all parking in the village is free and usually there are plenty of spaces. The house is spacious and the 3 bedrooms - 1 king, 1 double and 1 twin - all have their own bathrooms. As there were only two of us, we used the back king size room and the bed was fantastically comfortable. There is a downstairs loo, which is adjacent to the spacious hallway. Washing machine facilities are in the basement. The living room is cosy, with 2 x 2 seat sofas and 2 armchairs. There is an open fire place for chillier evenings. The dining room has enough space for larger families and the kitchen is well stocked with crockery etc. The enclosed garden is particularly pretty and is visited by small, interesting birds. The neighbours have access rights to the bins. Be aware that the garden gate closes securely, but has no lock. You can pop across to the pond and cheese shop, from here. The gardener comes each week, usually on a Tuesday. There are some great local walks from the cottage, so if you didn't want to use the car too much it is ideal. I would certainly recommend staying in this fabulous cottage.

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• Susan - Verified booking

  We really enjoyed our holiday at Ivy cottage.

  Set in an ideal location in a quiet village, made it easy for us to access all areas of the Peak District, with Buxton only a 10 minute drive away, and plenty of walks on the doorstep. The property was well-equipped and full of unique items of furniture which added a personal touch. There was enough space for 5 adults to relax comfortably throughout the week. Only 2 minor points to highlight: as mentioned by other visitors, the garden is somewhat overgrown and it was difficult to navigate at times, especially to the various seating areas. When it had rained in the night, getting to and from the gate without getting wet from the plants was a challenge. However we do appreciate that trying to maintain the garden during high season must be a challenge. The second point to note was the downstairs shower which we were unable to use as, as a family, we are generally above average in height. Again, we appreciate that it is an old cottage, with low ceilings, but found that, unless you sat in the bath, the shower is better suited to children than adults. These points aside, we had a very enjoyable, relaxing holdiay and would recommend it to friends and family.

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