A very clean, well-equipped holiday cottage with everything you need and nothing you don't. I can't often be bothered to leave reviews, but a few of the existing reviews of this cottage seem unduly negative having actually been there, so I thought I'd try to redress the balance. For context, my wife and I have nearly completed the list of climbing all 230-odd Wainwright fells. We've stayed in 15 or 20 different holiday cottages in the Lakes over the last 15 or so years. This cottage isn't the most stylish, the most modern, or the cheapest. However it does tick the boxes in many ways:
* The location is excellent. At the foot of Blencathra (walk up the fell from the cottage).
* Pub about 50 yards down the road
* View of Clough Head across the churchyard from 2 of the 3 bedrooms is awesome
* Quiet
We found the cottage fully cleaned and prepared considering we stayed during the COVID pandemic. The whole place smelled slightly of disinfectant when we arrived - not enough to be unpleasant and it quickly faded, but enough to make you aware that the place had been thoroughly cleaned. The anti-viral spray left in the kitchen for us to use was also appreciated.
There was some confusion about towels - we were delighted to find a pile of nice clean fluffy towels for our use, but a bit bemused because all the communication ahead of time had said that no towels were going to be provided, so we'd brought our own anyway.
We were there in early August so only had one chance to light the open fire in the sitting room, but the fact that there was abundant coal available is another of those invisible plusses which make staying somewhere feel like home.
I have to conclude with a list of a couple of negatives:
* My son found the beds in the twin room way too firm (he's a skinny 18-year-old)
* No garden, aside from the very tiny space between the front of the house and the road. We were there for one of the few evenings where a BBQ in the Lakes is a good idea, and there wasn't anywhere. Not a concern if you're planning on visiting outside July/August though.
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