“The cottage is part of an hold house split into a few houses, on the far side of Coniston.”
Nice and quiet. Grizedale Forest and Tarn How’s are very near for enjoyable walks or in our case runs, from the front door. Downstairs is totally open plan and remodelled to a high standard. Upstairs has a couple of bedrooms, a locked room and a well appointed bathroom with shower and separate bath, all very clean. There is a garden with a bench in the front and another area to the side. We did have a few negatives about our stay. The information pack was very limited. There was no information on where to throw rubbish away once the living area bin was full. I did spot a big industrial size bin at the entrance of the car park, so went to use that. As I was about to open the lid I heard a voice come from the darkness telling me not to put the bin bag in the bin and just leave it there. Very weird! We had a good puzzle over finding the washing machine and dryer. It was nowhere to be found in the house, no information on how to find it in the pack! I again searched in the car park and noticed a block of outhouses had numbers on them, tried the door that matched ours, locked! Went back to Cottage and searched for a key, found on kitchen window sill. Off back out in the dark, across the car park and opened the outhouse door, only to find someone was using our dryer, was informed on complaint to Heart of the Lakes that no one should have access. Strange and now somewhat spooky! There is also no wash basket to carry your washing out and back! We also had a man come to the door one night, saying he was the previous owner, telling us our electric would be off all day the following day, as it was having essential maintenance, contacted H of the L, they knew nothing about it. The electric never went off, very weird. Another negative was nearly no cutlery or crockery matched and most crockery had lots of chips in them. Not great for hygienic eating! There was also no departure details about bins, beds or towels. We also found the sofa pretty uncomfortable, though that is down to everyone’s tastes and needs but our bad backs did not enjoy the sofa. Overall the interior of the cottage is lovely, sadly felt some of the basics inside did not come near the same standard. Upstairs was fine. We also had a power cut on our last night and the emergency torch in the kitchen doesn’t work and yes it had been on charge. Good job we had our head torches as it gets absolutely pitch black. Overall a lovely cottage in a nice quiet location, handy for walks and the Coniston Inn is nearby if you want a hearty meal or a pint. If the sofa, crockery/cutlery and information pack was improved we would have scored it higher. Really wasn’t keen on having to walk to the other side of the car park to wash clothes, glad we didn’t get the usual lashing Lakeland rain or this would have been miserable.
