Large Dog Friendly Cottages in Durham

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Joanna - Verified booking

  A very mixed review for our stay last weekend.

  The house itself is lovely and was comfortable and clean. A few damp patches in the second double room that needed tending too but we appreciated the age of the building. Unfortunately we all came back from the weekend unwell, my son has such a bad rash I've had to take him to the doctor's who confirmed Pseudomonas Folliculitis and that it came from the poorly sanitised hot tub he said the bacteria comes from poor sanitation and upkeep of the water. We complained to the owners whilst we were there about the smell coming from the tub and that the water was extremely dirty after only one use. The owner suggested that it was my makeup that had caused the filter to clog up and that he hadn't seen anything like it before as the filter was completely blocked and refilled the tub but it was too late. My son had already started to get spots, there is no way we could have made the water that unsanitary in one use that it caused such an infection. I also had no makeup on while using the tub. My son is so unwell as a result that he's had to be treated with two different types of antibiotics and steroid cream as it's really painful and inflamed and he's had a raging temperature all week - the rest of us are seeing how we get on but all have spots where our swimwear was all apart from my mother who didn't go in. This is definitely a health and safety matter and very concerning. He could potentially have scars all over his torso now as the infection is so bad! We complained to Sykes days ago and have had no response so leaving our review here so that others are aware of the dangers of unclean hot tubs.

  Read more less >

• Vani - Verified booking

  Overall, this is an excellent cottage with gorgeous views, both from the living room and the kitchen (hello alpacas!

  ). It was a great base for a week in Sep 2024 when we were very lucky to have very hot, sunny and summery weather! Do recommend the Stanhope Agricultural show (and others in the area if you visit in September). We also really appreciated the YouTube video showing how to approach the cottage - no issues at all for us with good parking for 2 cars (i20 and a Yaris). Top tip: read the manual provided to know how to switch the oven on! We appreciated the different coloured towels for the different rooms, and loved the main shower. The kitchen is much larger than it appears and is a wonderful place to hang out with your family and friends. We loved the American fridge freezer! We loved the size of the TV though worth noting that we could not find live TV channels (guessing that it is due to the rural location?). Good selection of games and books too. The niggles we experienced are easily resolvable with a higher standard of pre-arrival housekeeping. We found white dog hairs on the dining room chairs, the freezer drawers were not pristine (unlike the fridge) and the oven was not clean, meaning it was very smoky. We also experienced some toilet roll anxiety as we were left with only 4 for a party of 5 for an entire week, so we would recommend more being left! Another minor annoyance is that the plates/bowls etc. do not easily fit the dishwasher. Nothing worth contacting Sykes/owner about during our holiday but wanted to mention this as an easy area for improvement. I would have no hesitation in booking again - the fire was a lovely treat on the cooler nights.

  Read more less >

• Joanne - Verified booking

  We stayed here for 4 nights over the Easter weekend.

  Our party consisted of 8 adults, our 3 year old granddaughter and our 2 grandsons aged 19months and 16months. We also took our little dog. The property is beautiful and there was ample room for our large party. The downstairs room converts into a bedroom which meant effectively we had 5. I had worried about the little ones eating in the high chair with the property having cream carpets and I had taken floor covers - however these weren’t needed as in between the kitchen and the utility room there is a little annexe room with a hardwearing carpet where the boys had their meals. The garden area was ideal and I had chosen it as it is very secure and all on one level which is ideal for 3 little ones and a dog. The accommodation is immaculate and the host was very pleasant and replied very quickly to my requests for a high chair and travel cot and for extra logs for the hot tub. The location is also ideal and we had lovely walks to Barnard Castle and nearby Runa Farm, each about 15-20 minutes away. Outdoor and indoor games were provided and we had some good old fashioned fun playing boules and swing ball in the garden and on an evening played trivial pursuit and other board games with a few tipples. A thoroughly lovely stay and highly recommended.

  Read more less >

• Sara - Verified booking

  We spent our family Christmas here, and we were extremely happy.

  The surrounding area is just stunning. Miles of green, a view of horses from one window and alpacas from the other. The property is dog friendly, they provided dog towels and bowls. There is a porch on either side of the house so you can dry off the dogs without dragging mud in. If you do however they leave you very well equipped with hoover/mop so you can keep it clean. This might be the best stocked rental we have ever stayed in. Knowing we were cooking a Christmas dinner we brought our own oven trays, yorkie trays,etc but we needn’t have, it had everything we could have possibly needed and more. The oven was brilliant and the fridge and freezer were more than ample for our Christmas food and drinks. On our drive there we remembered we forgot our firestick, so we could watch Christmas films on Christmas Eve, didn’t need to worry about that either, the TV was a smart tv and had excellent WiFi. The bedrooms were more than big enough, and the shower pressure, well I miss it already. We made plenty use of the wood burner in the front room and the stocked games cupboard. There was simply nothing missing from our stay. It was very clean and we hope to come back.

  Read more less >

• Mrs Plant - Verified booking

  The Beeches is on a farm and yet separate from the activities of the farm. It is set in its own grounds with a decent size all around garden. The views from the front of the property are simply magnificent and the rear garden (complete with a BBQ) is extremely quiet and private. The accommodation has three beds and two baths a great lounge with a large TV and in a separate room there is a playstation and a table football game. There are some great walks directly from the house and many more in the local area. The hosts were extremely welcoming and we had homemade cakes on arrival . There are plenty of places to visit, the waterfalls are particularly good and if you are feeling energetic then I would recommend the "Elephant Trees" walk where I saw to my delight a flock of Curlew. There are numerous places to eat, however I would wholeheartedly recommend an Italian restaurant in the nearby town of Crook called Perla Nera, their home made bread sticks are excellent and the Black squid ink pasta with king, tiger and baby prawns was probably the best pasta dish that I have every had.

  Read more less >