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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• Jamie - Verified booking

  Although the location of this property is fantastic, we do not recommend it as somewhere to stay on holiday.

  Poorly equipped with miss-matched cutlery, few plates, bowls, mugs etc. just enough for the amount of people which isn’t great! Most importantly no blind or curtain on widow in the double bedroom upstairs- the neighbours over the road could literally watch us sleeping (it is a velux window that is below the height of the over road neighbours bedroom so they can literally look down into the room)!!!! Not to mention having nothing to block the light when we were trying to sleep! The upstairs shower is duct taped to the floor so very wobbly and the downstairs shower leaks into the hallway to a huge extent and as it is tiled flooring makes a huge safety issue- our children slipped a couple of times despite us mopping after every shower. The double bed upstairs is also very uncomfortable and lumpy! The owners clearly do not care about the property or about the comfort of the people staying there, it’s a shame as the layout is great and lovely location. Also the property was not in a clean state when we arrived. There was so so much dog hair from previous stays- there were literally hair balls in the corners of the living room and we had to retrieve a toy from under the sofa- I wish we left it there as it was covered in dust and hair! There was cutlery in the draw that still had oil and what we think was honey on so we then had to wash everything to make sure it was clean enough to use. Sorry, we cannot recommend this property and hope Sykes contact the owner regarding the lack of privacy/ blinds in the double room upstairs as well as the safety issues regarding both showers.

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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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