“1 Brunt How is a beautiful house, and despite a few issues, the fact we will come back shows we loved the place.”
A lot of the issues were with the administration, especially now Sykes seem to have taken over all the rental companies and decided not to offer any support.
The listing is true to life, and the house is as gorgeous as it looks in the pictures. I’ve wanted to stay somewhere really special in the Lakes for a while, and after giving up on the rubbish Pullwood booking site, found 1 Brunt How. My daughter, whose 10th birthday we were going away for, called it The Castle, and it was worth the booking cost just to see her excitement when we decided we could go. Initially we had just peeked at the listing to see what it would be like if you had a fancy holiday in the lakes, but we were so taken by it, we went ahead and booked.
Also worth the fee was the shower in the zip bedroom, it’s awesome, and I want my bathroom redone at home with that exact shower.
The kitchen is the best equipped I’ve seen in a holiday cottage. There’s almost everything you need, including nice oven dishes, a really good oven and a combi microwave. I was able to bake a birthday cake while there, with a little help from Lakeland. The underfloor heating in the kitchen is lovely.
It should be a given nowadays, but it often isn’t, and Brunt How’s internet was reliable.
The wildlife and the views are amazing. So many birds, deer, rabbits and even a stoat came to see us.
The view from the living room and both main bedrooms is just awesome, rain or shine. I can’t do it justice by describing it so I won’t try.
Although close to Skelwith Bridge by road, I don’t recommend trying to walk there along the A593 as there’s no path and it’s too narrow. Ellers Brow and Foulstep is steep but not far. Even nicer is the bridleway 10 yards up Ellers Brow, as it takes you up towards Loughrigg and either back round to Skelwith Bridge via Loughrigg Tarn or over the saddle to Ambleside. They’re both wonderful walks with great views. If you get to Skelwith Bridge, Chesters is awesome.
If you like seeing aircraft (my inner 9 year old loves it) Brunt How is brilliantly placed. If you take one of the walks above then it’s even better. The front of the house is also brilliant for stargazing.
Be aware the drive to the house is steep. I was glad I’d recce’d the entrance on Google streetview, as I’d have missed it in the dark otherwise. My van bottomed out turning onto the steep base of the drive, but the in-laws’ SUV didn’t, just for reference. If you’re walking in or out, the steps from the front of house are easier. Hopefully helpful if you’re tired or less mobile.
Badmin.
As I noted above, a lot of the problems with the trip were outside the owners’ control, but should absolutely be within the scope of Lakelovers / Sykes / Heart of the Lakes / whoever the heck is administering the holidays, probably an AI hedgehog.
Beware badly notified road closures.
I’m pretty good with maps and have been to the Lakes a few times. The various councils in charge of the roads clearly have an aversion to notifying Google and Apple about road closures, so don’t rely on those maps to warn you. You could check the various Lake District, Westmorland and Cumberland websites for closures, but they’re blooming difficult to follow with reference to local names, and you’d easily miss a vital closure.
I still haven’t quite processed how frustrated I should be at a road closure at Rydal, 3 miles shy of Ambleside, that was first notified by road signs in Grasmere. After doubling back to Grasmere, the first almost hidden diversion sign brings you back round to Rydal, but before the road closure so that was pointless. It’s also not like it was 2AM, this was just after 7PM. I contemplated taking Red Bank, but with a bike rack on and it being dark, decided against it. The fact the diversion signs began at Grasmere and took you back North is mind boggling. They had someone drive all the way to Troutbeck putting out diversion signs from Grasmere around Helvellyn via Troutbeck and Patterdale, but couldn’t be bothered to go 7 miles further to Rhegged and put out a sign saying no access to Ambleside via Keswick after 7PM. The reason I’m so cross about this is partly to try and stop anyone else having to go through this at the start of their holiday, mainly because my poor little autistic 10 year old had an extra 2 hour journey on winding dark roads late at night, partly because everyone else in the world notifies mapping agencies of this stuff, and partly because this is absolutely within the ability of tourist companies like Sykes running accommodation in one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, and who send directions to their customers in the multitude arrival emails. These agencies have local knowledge and understanding of council websites and local roads. This is rubbish service.
Contacting anyone.
Also rubbish service was the inability to contact anyone at the overlapping agencies. When you book you’re told the heating is set by the owners or Heart of the Sykeslovers so you don’t turn it up, to save energy. Fine, but I wanted to ask for the heating to be turned down or at least for us to be allowed to turn it down, as we’re sensitive flowers and don’t like too much heat. The Lakelovers contact phone numbers were for when you arrive. The website via logged in booking number just kept taking you round in circles, saying there were no amenities with options to change, so you could either add people to the booking or cancel it. The only way I could try and reach anyone was by the Sykes / Lakelovers WhatsApp, which got no reply despite repeated attempts, until I finally just asked why I hadn’t had a reply. Even after that they said they’d find out if the heating could be lowered, but I heard nothing further, so we just had to put up with eyeballs becoming raisins. At least the AI hedgehog probably would have told me he could only help with hedgehog related enquiries and had I thought of hibernation.
Postage.
We’d been let down by a local seller before the holiday so I ordered something online to be delivered to Brunt How. Not detailed in the blurb from, yup, Lakelovers / Sykes / Heart of the Lakes is a block on deliveries to the house. Thankfully it was Royal Mail, so I could have it delivered to the post office in Ambleside, but be aware if you’re going there for a birthday or something.
Spring cleaning.
One of the reviews a couple of years ago noted cleanliness. Brunt How needs a spring clean. I’m sure housekeeping do their very best with the surface clean turnaround of multiple properties. We dropped a piece of spectacles and needed to hunt around on hands and knees under the beds and drawers, and it was a bit grim, with lots of dust, cobwebs, a few uneaten crisps. You then start noticing more grub and don’t actually want to put your stuff down anywhere. Crockery had bits of stuff in, some of the cookware in the cupboards had cobwebs on, extractor fans and radiator backs were very dusty. Just needs a deep clean.
I didn’t want a review to put anyone off staying as it’s an amazing place. I hope this is useful feedback. I’m very cross about the badmin at Sykes, but it looks like they’re here to stay as they’ve taken over everyone, even Sally’s I think, and I’ve seen them on some AirBNBs. I imagine owners are over a barrel as with the amount of competition you need an agency for exposure. It might be that only the owners can put pressure on Sykes to improve. There’s currently a very low bar.
If the house is cleaned and you’re ok with a warm house and you’re not unlucky with the roads, I think you’ll have one of your best holidays ever staying at 1 Brunt How. Thank you to the owners for sharing their beautiful home.
Thank you for your review and kind words about 1 Brunt How, and apologies for not coming back to you sooner. We share your frustration and were never notified that there was an issue with the heating. We are trialling giving guests the option to contact us directly because of exactly the issues you describe.
The really annoying thing is that when you mark us down because of management issues, it is us the owners who are impacted, not Sykes. We will take up the points you have raised and hope that this can be avoided in future.
kind regards, the owners.
Property Owner
