School Holidays 2017 Cottages In Lochinver

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Susan - Verified booking

  Overall, we were disappointed with Hilltop.

  We had a problem with the gas supply to the hob which became a major disruption to our holiday. The gas supply to the hob was erratic with a very small flame eventually appearing on the rings for the first few days of the holiday. By Wednesday there was no gas coming through at all. We had to drive about a mile to get a phone signal as there was no WiFi or landline in the house on several occasions throughout Thursday, speaking first to a local contact and then on three occasions to yourselves. Each telephone conversation occasioned a separate trip as we waited for some progress. Eventually the owner (Simon) contacted my husband and advised he could not get a gas engineer until the following morning. That evening, we eventually managed to get some gas at the hob enough to cook a meal for our visitors. Catherine then arrived with her daughter and interrupted our dinner saying she had to take a photo of the gas hob for Simon. The following morning (Friday) Catherine arrived just after 9am with a gas engineer who eventually managed to fix the problem by installing a new regulator to the gas cylinder. The whole incident was very inconvenient and disappointing. Separately, I would comment that the cottage had a lack of homeliness in that the bare necessities were present but there were, for example, no coathooks, no towel rail or hooks in the bathroom, no pictures on any of the walls, no cushions on the sofa and no additional blankets in the bedrooms. Also there were no instructions on how to operate any appliances and very minimal information about the local area. There was no information about local services, Doctor, Shops, Restaurants etc. Finally, the garden was described as a "lawn" but was very rough terrain and pasture with cow dung all over the area. These may seem trivial points but such features do make a positive difference to the feel of a holiday home. The wood-burning stove appeared to be poorly installed and was uncontrollable and there was no information on local supplies of firewood. We have used self-catered properties for over 25 years and whilst Hilltop looked appealing on your website I would have to rate it as a poor experience.

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• Helen - Verified booking

  We had a fantastic stay at Hilltop.

  The stylish modern interior came as a welcome surprise in what looked a fairly unremarkable property at first sight. The location about half way between the Clachtoll and Stoer beaches was perfect, and the fish and chip van was practically next door! As other reviews have said, there are a couple of old cars and a small cuttting/quarry on the way up to the house, but this is a rural area and that is not unusual. They certainly didn’t spoil our view and we didn’t feel the need for pictures on the walls. The antics of the various animals on the Croft next to Hilltop we’re fascinating and made for entertaining viewing. If you are interested in geology, the view from the house inland is wonderful, showing the change from the red Torridonian sandstones to the grey Lewisian gneiss. There were a couple of minor issues with the property, although these didn’t affect the quality of our stay. There was some perishable food left in a cupboard by previous holidaymakers; we would have expected this to be disposed of in the present circumstances. The shower didn’t drain well at first, although this was solved by putting some cleaner (provided) down it. The mattresses on the twin beds were quite hard and might not suit some people, me being one of them! One side of the double bed seemed rather lumpy. However, these are minor points and the place overall was very clean and comfortable. We would certainly stay there again.

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• Julia - Verified booking

  We had a really good holiday in the end but it was marred at the start by the unhelpful and unpleasant behaviour of the owner.

  He did not respond to our emails, asking about key collection, so I had to call up. During the call I asked if we should bring our own table tennis balls (one of the reasons we chose this cottage is the table tennis is shown in the pictures). He told me the table had been damaged some time ago and when I said how disappointed I was, he sneeringly claimed that 'no-one books a cottage just for table tennis'. When I explained that it was one of the main reasons we had decided on this particular cottage and asked if the table could be repaired before we arrived, he dismissed this as 'impossible'. He did not offer any apology and did not reply to my follow-up email that politely requested at least a temporary repair. In the end, when we arrived we found that, although damaged, it was possible to still use the table. The cottage is well equipped, though not that well maintained. It is likely to be something inherited from the owner's parents as it still has everything a lived-in house contains. The housekeeper clearly makes a good job of trying to clean the property well between visits but inevitably with so much bric-a-brack around, there are areas that they can't get to. It would give a better holiday experience if the owner would remove all the 'rubbish' e.g. drawers full of broken bits of household equipment and DIY stuff - this would make it easier to clean and it would feel less like living in someone else's house.

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• Rosemary - Verified booking

  This property was remote but ideal location for us but the property's description was not as described on the website.

  In fact the whole property desperately needed upgrading. 1. The shower over bath u/s and awaiting replacement. The toilet bowl in the bathroom had 2 serious cracks in it . The other shower In shower room only useable with immersion heater on. The hand basin also had a hairline crack from one side to the other. 2. Dining room stove not to be used as it affected immersion heater. Replacement electric heater was provided. 3. Oven did not have grill pan and only one oven shelf so cooking was best done on the hob. It was generally unfit. 4. Free sat to one tv only gave one channel and no signal to tv in Main lounge. Owner obviously relied on folks wanting to view dvd and videos - of which there was many. 5. Bearing in mind remote location the fridge was small and with broken shelf was only just adequate storage for two of us and would prove hard for a family. The freezer part was ok. 6. The tumble dryer lacked a venting kit and was rather noisy. 7. Pictures on Sykes website not up to date. 8. There was no PAT done on any portable equipment eg kettle, toaster, iron etc. Having said all this we thoroughly enjoyed the location and peacefulness, complete with sheep and lamb keeping the grass mowed each day !! Deer on the hillside opposite and birdlife.

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• Helen - Verified booking

  Hilltop was a lovely cottage in a wonderful location with stunning scenery and wildlife on the doorstep, and ideally positioned for local walks and trips much further afield.

  It was clean, comfortable and fairly well equipped, but there were just a few minor points that could have made our stay perfect. Firstly the dishwasher was out of order. Secondly the shower head leaked badly affecting the water pressure and making it impossible to direct water to a particular angle, for example if you were trying to have a shower without washing your hair. Also some towel rails in the bathroom would have been useful to get the towels dry - we just had to drape them all around the bath. Hooks on the back of the bathroom and bedroom doors would also have been useful. However, the main thing was the mattress on the double bed. It was very soft causing you to sink into the middle of it and feel the springs, very uncomfortable and offering little support for your back. Other small details are that it would have been nice to have had a bedside lamp on both sides of the bed and for each single bed. The walls were very bare with only one picture in the sitting room in the entire cottage. A few more pictures and perhaps the odd ornament and a rug for the sitting room would have made it feel more snug and homely. Despite these fairly minor details Hilltop was a lovely cottage and we had a wonderful week there and would certainly consider returning in the future.

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