Big Cottages & Group Accommodation in Barrow In Furness

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Peter - Verified booking

  Fantastic location and a great house with an interesting history, some of which is documented in a folder in the entrance hall.

  We visited in the week of the three named February storms and encountered problems with the fit of three windows but have been assured by the owner that these have now been resolved. The house, nevertheless, has an excellent and effective heating system and, despite its size, it felt very warm and cosy. The youngsters really enjoyed the hot tub outside in its own enclosure although we did not make use of the wood-fired free-standing sauna in the garden. The house is well-furnished with quality furniture and the kitchen and breakfast room are well-equipped while even in February it was very pleasant to sit on the enclosed verandah which also has table tennis, air hockey, table football and quoits to entertain visitors. DVD and books are also available to borrow and, for the musical visitor, there is a piano. Despite storms, we were able to enjoy good, sunny weather as well to explore the Barrow area and, with appropriate clothing, enjoyed kite-flying, exploring and other beach activities on Walney Island, the Coast Road and Roanhead ('Sandscale Haws'). The Dock Museum (Wed to Sun) and its playground were popular, the children enjoyed looking at 'Anson', an Astute-class submarine in Devonshire Dock from the High Level Bridge and we visited the Lifeboat Station adjacent to the house, by arrangement. (The RNLI volunteers do such good work and appreciate donations from visitors.) One daughter called at the Barrow AFC shop with her two young boys and a great fuss was made of them by a kind employee when they asked if it was possible to look at the pitch. We didn't have chance to visit the North Walney and South Walney Nature Reserves on this occasion but can recommend them from previous knowledge of the area. On the island, the adjacent Bosun's Locker Cafe (Thurs to Mon) is excellent in both quality and value - book an afternoon tea for a treat, go for breakfast/lunch or order a tray pie to cook/heat in the house while at the other end of the island (400m) the Roa Island Boating Club offers access for drinks (including beers brewed on site and local real ales) from Thursday to Sunday and great value home-cooked food from Friday to Sunday. (The Sunday lunch is excellent!) A great house and area for family reunions and friendship groups!

  Read more less >

• Steve - Verified booking

  First off. We really enjoyed our time at Millwood Manor.

  It was the first time in 4 years that my 84 year old mother had seen our children and the reunion was special. The entire group was excited for the stay, and I had shared the listing with them all before we arrived. Overall, the property did not live up to the hype. But again, we all really enjoyed our stay and the house gave us plenty to talk about. Here’s how it could be improved: 1) We arrived in the dark and the house looked grim and forbidding from the outside. A simple photosensitive outside light would have made the first impression so much warmer. 2) The front door has seen many better days and sticks as you try and open it. It requires a big shove and makes a squeal like a banshee. 3) The house was chilly upon arrival. The thermostats were all set to 17C, so the first impression was of cold and damp. 4) Nice touches like the bread, milk, juice and biscuits, plus fire materials won some goodwill back. If the fires had been laid and the ‘welcome’ basket presented as a ‘welcome’ all could have been forgiven. 5) as per the pictures, the house is arresting and quirky. The hall and the main bathroom are the highlights. Having the dead light bulbs replaced in the ceiling lights would have really shown the hall off in all it’s glory. 6) The bedrooms were from a different time - damp patches, on the walls, musty smellsand saggy beds. 7) Location is great, lovely walks through the woods and the wild garlic carpets and bluebells were delightful. 8) Of the three vacuum cleaners in the property only one worked (one made everything dirtier). 9) The house had pretty much everything we needed, save some cleaning clothes. 10) Broadband speeds were in the single digits, but stable. If you need to jump on a Teams call, you might want to bring a Starlink or OneWeb. Basically, this is a lovely, quirky property that could be amazing. It just needs some TLC and and it’s windows cleaned.

  Read more less >

• Beth - Verified booking

  We had a wonderful week at the beautiful Roa House.

  From the moment we walked into the large entrance hall we knew we'd found somewhere special to stay. The house is big, with tall ceilings and impressive rooms, as well as the lovely garden with gorgeous views over the water. We stayed during a heatwave and were very pleased that the inside of the house remained cool despite this. The hot tub, games tables, comfy lounge and long dining tables were all fab, and it was only due to the heatwave that we didn't have a go at starting the sauna up! Our only tiny niggle was that the kitchen could do with a few improvements - the lighting was rather dim on an evening, and we couldn't find a grill pan or measuring jug to use despite the otherwise impressive array of kitchen utensils on offer. A draining board next to the sink to aid in washing up pots and pans would also be an asset - cooking for 13 does create a fair bit of washing up and we were very grateful for the two dishwashers! It's also worth noting that there was a little confusion with the beds - the info received beforehand stated that if we wanted the zip lock twin beds made up as doubles, we should email two weeks beforehand. Since we wanted them as individual beds, we didn't message - but although this worked fine for the triple room downstairs, we found the upstairs room had been made up as a double alongside the small half bed. We were able to separate the double and use the spare bedding from the triple room downstairs and the small bed to fix it, since we only had two people staying in each room, but it was a bit of a hassle. Usually with a Sykes stay the host texts before arrival so we have a contact for things like this, but oddly we hadn't received anything other than the standard Sykes emails for this holiday so couldn't ask about it. These were really only tiny niggles in an otherwise idyllic holiday though, hence my five star review rating. Thank you for a fabulous stay!

  Read more less >

• Alan - Verified booking

  It would have been helpful if the floor plans (as provided at Roa Island House) had been included on the website as this would have assisted sorting out accommodation among our multi-family group.

  As the owner clearly has them it is a pity they were not visible on the Sykes Cottages website at the time of booking. Overall, very spacious house which is let down by a number of issues, such as the size of kitchen - which could get very crowded. The cleaning being done between lettings is clearly very limited as dust and lost belongings (e.g. sock, perfume bottle), from previous holidaymakers, were found under beds, sofas, etc. All a bit ironic when you keep reading notices about how you will be charged extra if things like the hot tub are not left in a pristine condition. Not surprised therefore when we had an extra guest one evening in the kitchen in the form of a live mouse. We showed the mouse the door but guess he had his own access route back in somewhere. Had to report a blocked drain just outside the front door which had clearly not been maintained, and caused the effluent from the laundry room blocked drain in the car park and not great when you have small children in the group. Mobile reception was patchy on certain networks. The third party maintainer seemed to have to be instructed to clear the drain and it appeared that it was up to renters to spot these issues. House related, the mechanism which controlled the cover for the hot tub was broken. Instructions for various unfamiliar appliances were scattered through drawers and cupboards, which we found eventually, but that was all really unhelpfully disorganised. The lack of recycling bins was a very very odd feature, which we agree with the comments of previous occupants needs addressing. So, interesting location, very quiet, lovely views and garden for the children to play in and great to unwind and relax but the cleaning and pest control both need attention. Some aspects of the house are now looking very tired and need addressing at Roa Island House.

  Read more less >

• Gylian - Verified booking

  We had a wonderful stay at Roa Island House.

  I think the house could benefit from a little "TLC" in areas, a lick of paint here and there but this did not detract from our enjoyment. Its a shame that the kitchen area is relatively small compared to other rooms in the house, it got a little congested with more that 2 people in it at a time. We were extremely lucky that we had lovely weather and were able to enjoy the garden and its outdoor facilities to the max. There were a couple of window blinds that need some attention, broken and stained vertical blinds in the lounge and especially in bedroom 7 on the ground floor as they do not close properly and the curtains are see through. Also the fire alarm went off on the first night - no apparent reason for this happening and the noise was deafening. There were no clear instructions of how to turn it off/re-set and when we phoned the number on the box for assistance they said that they would get someone to call us back with instructions on how to turn it off - they finally called back after ONE HOUR!!!! By that time, by some fluke of luck we had already managed to reset it, but obviously as we were not sure how we had done it we were nervous in case it happened again. When they did finally call back my friend said that we had fixed it and when the caller asked how, my friend jokingly said "Oh we axed it off the wall" and the caller said "oh thats great then" - was he not listening to us or had this happened before? not really an acceptable service, especially as we had my young grandchildren with us who were notably frightened by the noise. Clear instructions in the house manual are essential. However, even with the above we all said that we would definitely go back, house felt very homely and relaxing!!!. Yours sincerely Gylian Darnley

  Read more less >