Large Cottages in Derbyshire for Group Holidays

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Andy - Verified booking

  This is not to be seen as a negative review and I hope you take the feed back as constructive comments.

  We had a brilliant family week and the location for central Castleton is brilliant. But the property is needing some TLC. Most kitchen utensils were provided - but we are glad we brought our large wok for cooking for a family of 7. There's no garlic crusher and an additional chopping board would be good. It might be worth sharpening knives or providing new ones as the ones provided are woeful. Not a massive issue to us, but there's no gate on the fence facing the public car park which could be a close call for potentially escaping dogs when front door opened. The front door supporting brace needs replacing as it is broken and you have to lean on the door to close it. There is no key for the side patio doors (that we found). The stable door at the rear does not close properly unless you really push it and lock the door from the inside. This is annoying if you are sitting outside. It becomes dangerous for little children and their fingers. No light bulb in small room and no replacements or spares anywhere. Dishwasher needs salt to be provided - there was none that we found, so it often didn’t clean very well. Tumble dryer - doesn’t dry clothes completely dry. Accessible electric cables/wires under tv are not only visible and unsightly, but grabbable by a child unless really supervised. The welcome book is lacking any real details about managing the property itself. The bins - although it can’t be helped - were 3/4 full on arrival. There is also a lack of details for bin day collection point. I placed the green bin in the car park, but luckily I saw the bin crew at 6:30am and they said they only collect from the roadside. There is no hot tub information/ upkeep details what so ever. Luckily, we knew we had to add chlorine as the slow release container floating around had run out by Wednesday. Who knew you had to remove this when in use? I can only compare to other places I've been where staff visited twice a day to check levels. It shouldn't be down to guests to manage the safe use of a hot tub, with no instructions. There are no spare bedding or pillows (its stated beds can be pulled apart if needed which is great, but there are no extra duvets provided) there is also an under sheet missing. The curtain in the living room is annoyingly short. Cleaning, just generally could be better. It seems a surface clean is done, rather than a thorough turnover. There are cobwebs and spiders in most room corners, the worst place being above the kitchen fridge. Bathroom window is in need of repair (there was a note on the window) however the bathroom door in the same room also doesn’t close properly. In addition, the toilet seat is moving and needs to be fixed/ replaced. King size bedroom en-suite shower doors don’t close completely, and tray floods - due to blockage. Stairs are loud and need new wedges, difficult to move up and down the stairs at night time without waking others and one gets a sense that the stairs are going to collapse! Security for dogs and young children in the garden is concerning given the proximity to the main road and it is fortunate we were fastidious in supervision. We had to move any wood lying around to form a barrier to deter them from escaping, especially towards the car park side. There were many screws lying around in the rear pebbled area that we picked up following construction of the welcome cover to hot tub. It seems a missed opportunity to encompass the fire pit and grassed area along with the pebbled area into a wholly securely fenced area. The seating area along the fence in the pebbled area, along the roadside, by the hot tub is a great idea, but it is too high. It needs to be halved in height to sit comfortably on. This is by far the main area we used A seat leg was broken on the arm chair in the living room by window. We ended up balancing this many times so it could be used. The oven has a weird funny smell when in use Castleton experienced a massive power cut during our stay, so the burglar alarm needs resetting as it was beeping and there was an issue rebooting the WiFi and TV but we conquered that eventually. I come back to the Welcome pack, there were no instructions how to do any of this. A clock would be nice on the fireplace in the living room. It takes two adults to lift the hot tub lid on and off. Actually 3, the first time we used it we leant the lid against the fence, but it dropped down the back and it took 3 adults to get it out (2 in the spa). Whilst the lady cleaning the hot tub was utterly pleasant, she arrived at around 8:30am, but check out is at 10. The hot tub was being drained by before 9am, which didn’t allow any use for the morning of departure had we wanted to. Fortunately we didn't, but we were just not expecting anyone so early. Again, I come back to the welcome pack (lack of) information if 8:30 am is the norm.

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• Ms Simon - Verified booking

  This is a wonderful property for a family stay. Very spacious, comfortable and well equipped in the kitchen. My family and I spent a week here and had a wonderful time catching up with family and friends who lived nearby. The location is a short drive into Matlock; the walk into town is just over 30 minutes although I would recommend a taxi back due to the hills! The area is steeped in history and we were spoilt for choice in finding interesting things to do: Heights of Abraham; Chatsworth House; Peak District Mining Museum in Matlock; Cromford Mills; we even ventured to Alton Towers and Dovedale for a hike although the stepping stones were impassable due to flooding. We had also booked to see the Matlock illuminations but unfortunately this was also cancelled due to Storm Babet and the high water levels. We ate out a few times in Matlock - recommend Spice (Indian restaurant), Thai no1 and Buddy’s. The Remarkable Hare was our pub of choice. Back at the house, just 10 minutes down the Lane was a local pub which we also visited. Parking on the drive can be tricky due to the steepness, and I wouldn’t recommend this property if you have mobility issues for this reason, but for anyone else it’s a definite winner!

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• Ms Lesley Mountain - Verified booking

  Lovely house, clean and nicely decorated and tasteful art. Fantastic views over the valley and along to High Tor and the Heights of Abraham. Well equipped, (good maps too) but we would have liked a cafetiere as we don't like the wastefulness of the Nespresso capsules. Also we always find that the pans in houses for 6 adults aren't big enough for cooking a full meal (or perhaps we just eat too much!). The beds were very comfortable. We felt it was a little mean for a property at this level to have left so little toilet roll, kitchen roll and firewood. Also it would have been handy to know where we could buy more firewood and kindling. Although it warmed up so we didn't need it! We didn't spot a CO2 monitor but guess there must be one somewhere. We loved having places to sit outside and were luck enough to be able to take advantage of them. Maybe there needs to be clearer instructions re where to leave bins for collection as one wasn't collected? Thanks though, we had a great holiday.

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• David - Verified booking

  We found the photos of the front room on the website deceptive in that it made the front room look a lot bigger than it was.

  The downstairs was so small almost unusable especially if you had a young child. None of the top floor beds had linen on. We booked the whole cottage not just one floor! My wife was not feeling well so we needed the extra bed. Was forced to contact owner. I asked for an extra tray and dish rack as there was no dishwasher we needed the dish rack so plates etc could dry which they didn't without. What annoyed us was this request was ignored and we had quite a blunt text back saying linen would be left for us....but we shouldn't have had to ask! We had no welcome from owners. Signage to where park car needs replacing as you can't see it. Wasn't made clear in description that owners house was literally opposite. We had to put blinds down each day as anyone who walked past would stare in! Most mornings were quite noisy with either kids shouting on field behind us or some machinery work. Rooms need blinds to black out light! Bathroom and shower very good but need more hooks to hang towels.

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• Katie - Verified booking

  I feel I need to leave feed back in two halves.

  Good points- location is amazing, beds really comfortable, bedding good quality, towels good quality and living room furniture was comfortable. Things that let the property down- two missing gates on the front ( the dogs could get directly into the carpark or drive to main road), no handle to assist the hot tub lid lifting ( it took both my husband and I to get it back on so my parents had been unable to use it once we had left), no safe steps for older guests and a shower at outside the back door, very large amounts cobweb's in most areas, back stable door didn’t fasten together and is extremely poor repair, broken lock hanging off the inside of bedroom two along with a broken curtain tie back and broken soap holder left in the shower, shower in main bedroom not draining and leaving stood water, curtains that don’t reach the bottom of the window, no wood packs for the fire pit and lots of large lengths of wood left on sitting area so it was not able to be used.

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