Last Minute Cottages in Hawkshead

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Mitchell - Verified booking

  We enjoyed our time at Wykefield.

  We think it's important to highlight that some pictures of the outside of the property on the website are misleading. You see the whole house structure, but half of the building is the "Esk Wyke Country House Hotel". The windows facing out the downstairs 'nook', the upstairs bedrooms and bathroom all overlook the hotel car park. People are coming and going from there at all hours. You should be aware of that prior to booking. The main attraction of the house is the extension with the elongated dining room and kitchen which is lovely. The extra fridge-freezer in the garage is not mentioned in the description and would have been really useful to have known about when planning food to take. The tennis table in the garage is not very nice and bendy, so wasn't useable. The beds were comfortable. Despite the water being non-mains supplied, the pressure was great and reliable. The appliances all worked well and we liked the utilities. There's lots of board games, DVDs, maps, interesting books and a well-equipped kitchen. As pleasant, well equipped and thought out as the house is, we feel it's expensive for what you get. There's no proper games room or other facilities that for £2,500/week you should be getting at this range. This is a nice house, and a really great stay, but not at this cost. Especially with the hotel at peak season next door, with their suite windows overlooking the garden you're relaxing in. It's a well-placed location with several walks, towns and facilities nearby. It's of note that Beatrix Potter stayed in this house (prior to it being half hotel) and decided she wanted to live in the Lakes because of it! Esthwaite Water, which the garden overlooks, is privately owned and inaccessible so it's for view only. Overall, this is a good stay but pricey for what you get.

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• Steve - Verified booking

  This is a substantial property with an extensive garden area that you can even tire a spaniel out in!

  Its a 10 min walk into Hawkshead from the property where there is a good selection of pubs and shops. We were hit by Storm Arwen shortly after arriving so had to decamp for two nights as all the power went off, but the owners kindly refunded the two nights which was very good of them as the storm had nothing to do with them. We enjoyed staying here, with all the room, large kitchen for cooking in and dining room and cosy lounge. Two main issues, there is only BBC iplayer on the TV, no other channels at all, so they could do with sorting that out as you have to rely on the BBC and the DVDs in the property, not great on early dark nights. Also the property is chilly; the heating is set to 18 degrees which is too cold in winter. I did reset the Hive heating control for the week but the owner reset it back remotely so we had to rely on the boost control. Finally a watch out, the owners arrive promptly at 10am on checkout day, never had that at any other property stay where some latitude is given

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• Norman - Verified booking

  Second time we have stayed in this property.

  Great for our large family group, large kitchen, living & dining area, great for being together & apart. Cosy, comfortable & clean. Would definitely come again. But a few areas we would like to be addressed. Informed there were hair dryers, but 1 for the whole property, if we'd known that family would have brought their own. As a large group in the winter we like to cook & eat in. Although there is plenty of crockery glasses cups etc, there is a bit of a mish mash of utensils, no large serving spoons, bread knife, large sieve or kitchen scissors. We found that the left oven did not heat properly. Would be useful to supply hand towel for the kitchen & the downstairs toilet. Not enough separate bags bedding & towels. The hoover had not been emptied, it was extremely full, no spare bag, and smelt, do the cleaners bring their own? The main bin was full & on the side of the road on arrival Friday! As a large group we produced 3large bags we had to leave at the side of the road.

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• Hannah - Verified booking

  We really loved our stay here and appreciate in particular all of the luxury, homely touches.

  The location was so good that it was practically shown in the World of Beatrix Potter museum (well the view was). Everything felt thought of, and made our stay just perfect. We have stayed in a lot of Airbnbs and Sykes Cottages but this was our favourite so far and would love to return. Unfortunately we parked in the neighbour's space (it seemed empty and unkept so assumed it was available) next to our garden, if you could maybe be a bit more explicit on where we can park that would be great - as he seemed fine with us pulling up alongside the garage in the courtyard instead. There is space for 2 cars by the front door but a bit trickier for a 3rd. We can't unfortunately return during the summer months as the garden is not suitable for children (the sheer drops are even more severe than I realised at booking). There's a park on your doorstep to take the kids out for a run around! Thanks again and hope to book again!

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• Andrew - Verified booking

  As described this was a nice large house in nice grounds close to Hawkeshead with its facilities and nice walks around.

  The house has a large well equipped kitchen for us to cook each day for 10 adults so that dinner each evening was an occasion. The lounge separate from the dining room was a nice place to relax and read in in the evening for those who didn’t want to play games or during the day when the rain was severe as it often is in Cumbria. There was nothing that failed to meet our expectations but for a large property it would be good to have one large cooking pan big enough to cook for 10 and a couple of large cafetieres. However this was not a problem for us as we have never rented a property with big enough pans or cafetieres so we brought our own. Wi-Fi was very variable but I understand this is a lake district problem rather with the equipment in the house. We had a lovely stay in this excellent house and will want to come again.

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