Dog Friendly Villas In The North West

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Moira - Verified booking

  I have written quite a long review, so accept it would have to be edited for publication The Lawson family has just enjoyed a long weekend in The New House ,in a very rural part of Cumbria.

  Take the advice of Sykes Cottages and don’t arrive without that essential bottle of milk, as you can’t just pop out to the shops. The house is very spacious and comfortable, with plenty of room for a family of 9 adults, as we are. The main living, cooking and recreational area is open plan and most attractive, leading out to a furnished patio, within extensive and beautiful gardens. The kitchen is well equipped for self catering, which we mainly did, but we also enjoyed a very high quality and reasonably priced dinner at athe Crossings, about 20 minutes away. All the bedrooms and bathrooms are upstairs, quite a long and steep climb to be expected in this high ceilinged property. There is a downstairs toilet and utility room with an extra fridge freezer for all those provisions. There are empty cupboards in the kitchen for other groceries. For anyone wishing to be away from the biz of the family room, there is another attractive and comfortable sitting room, leading through to a library, with its extensive and eclectic collections of books. There is also a small, formal dining room, which we didn’t even think of using, as the large (very covetable) table in the family room accommodated us perfectly. From the house there is a fabulous panoramic view for miles around, totally unspoiled by any modern intrusions, pylons, etc., giving a wide open feel to the hilltop house. It is set in a truly historic landscape, with the 4th century Bewcastle Cross, all 15 feet of it carved beautifully in sandstone, to be found at the bottom of the hill. A special exhibition, housed within the churchyard, is well worth a visit. A visit to Birdoswald Roman fort is a must. A huge amount of excavation has been done, and a fine exhibition and cafe all make for a great visit, ideal for Wall enthusiasts, like us. The New House is advertised as a family home, and it certainly has that feel, not at all a sterile holiday let. However, we felt the, to us, rather off colour cartoons in the main bathroom would not be to the taste of many renters. Probably because of its remote position, the WiFi was quite patchy. These two comments apart, our family would highly recommend this lovely house and setting to any prospective customers, particularly anyone seeking peace and quiet. And it was a lovely place for celebrating our 60 th wedding anniversary, the diamond geezers as we became known! Moira Lawson

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• Jane - Verified booking

  Over all my experience at New House, Brampton was very disappointing.

  To start with I was a bit concerned when I discovered after booking that the house keeping bond was payable to the property owner not Sykes Cottages. My concern was well founded. After paying the bond, 8 days before the start of the holiday, we struggled to make any further contact with the owner, Mr Barrington, and I had to speak to Sykes to contact him on our behalf, whereupon he did eventually manage to send the arrival details and the key safe code to us - just 36 hours before our arrival and after a full week of procrastination on his part. After departing New House on the 13th December it took until the 30th of December and 5 further phone calls to Sykes to have the good housekeeping bond finally repaid. Sykes have been extremely supportive. I think without their help I could be still waiting for my money and I am very grateful for their help with this. The property itself is ‘tired’ and we found it cold. The windows need cleaning, the settees in the main room are grubby. There are far too many grotty table mats, chipped pots and worn out 'no longer' non-stick pan and oven trays. It appears nothing old has ever been thrown away. The cutlery is an eclectic collection of bits and bobs. The fridge and freezer have seen better days and the cooker is very worn and was far cleaner when we left than on our arrival, especially the oven which we cleaned before using. The beds were uncomfortable and too well used. Out of 3 showers 1 leaked, one was either excessively hot or excessively cold with nothing in between, the 3rd was okay. On a positive note Mr Barrington is very generous with his toilet rolls. The small sitting room and dining room are elegant but they accommodate only 5 or 6 people, as a party of 8 adults we did not use them. The property is remote, big and spacious and the views are lovely. But this is not nearly enough to compensate. It is fair to say that the inability to contact Mr. Barrington and the irritation it caused spoiled our holiday as much as the other negatives which are also significant.

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• Joanne - Verified booking

  New House was perfect for celebrating my birthday with family and friends.

  Fantastic property, well presented with lots of character, it felt like home with photos and personal items not too fussy but better than being sterile and was very comfortable and relaxing. Kitchen was well equipped and included everything we needed. Bedrooms were clean and beds very comfortable. Plenty of room for all my family and friends to be together or do their own thing and the views were spectacular. It may be a little off the beaten path but worth it; wether you go walking or running or just want a relaxing time New House was perfect. It was an excellent base to use to visit local places of interest such as Hadrians Wall, Carlisle, Gretna Green and you soon get to recognise the surrounding area and villages. The local Bewcastle Church and Cross is worth a walk to clear your head after celebrations and is around 1 1/2 miles away. A local traffic jam is a herd of sheep or cows coming towards you which is a novelty but different to my usual commute and the memory will make me smile. My family and friends all enjoyed their visit over the week and confirmed what a good idea it was to do this. The house made the celebrations and Ross had thought of everything except a hair dryer, we couldn’t find one anywhere but anything else you thought of was there! The heating isn’t like your CH st home and it took some getting used to but that’s part of the charm and the log burners were a great focal point and additional heat source. First time we have used Sykes but will be doing it again. Fabulous time highly recommend New House.

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• Laureen - Verified booking

  The lodge was lovely, on a lovely park and we had best part of the week very sunny so made all the more enjoyable.

  The WiFi was not very good.The tv ,do the think it is tuned in properly as we could not get some basic chanels. We took our amazon fire stick but even that would not work most of the time.The furniture in the sitting room. And Dinning room could be re arranged to make more room, I.e. the dinning table could be turned around to make more room. It looked like the carpet had not long been fitted but the large rug that goes in the living area was bunched up under the sofa and the large foot rest in the middle of the floor, which could be a tripping hazard and they were both too heavy for me and my husband to lift to try and straighten the rug out. The two sofas the main cushions are sagging we did turn them over quite a few times but it made no difference. The only other thing for me was there is too many drinking glasses, crockery, cutlery & small electrical kitchen appliances in the cupboards and drawers leaving no space to put Non fridge products, and there was no bread knife. .

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• Amanda - Verified booking

  The house is obviously a well-loved family home, but as others have mentioned in the visitors book and online, it is now in need of some TLC to bring it back to a good standard.

  Some of the kitchen equipment really needs replacing. Dishwasher doesn't work and obviously hasn't been working for a while. And a house of this size really needs a dishwasher and it does state dishwasher in the listing. The outdoor furniture shown in the listing is not provided. The mattresses are awful and in need of replacement. The sofas in the kitchen area are dirty and uncomfortable. Lovely to have wood and coal for the fire, which we very much appreciated. The house remained warm and cosy during our stay. The house also needs a really good thorough clean. One guest had particular trouble with the amount of dust and dog hair. It was really nice to have some basics provided (salt, pepper, olive oil etc.). The large downstairs spaces are ideal for family gatherings and very social, as is the lovely large dining table in the kitchen. The location is very quiet, which we loved, and there are lots of walks from the door. Property was easy to find.

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