“It's a lovely cottage on a farm in the countryside with stunning views.”
With 1 bedroom with a double bed and the other with 2 single beds, this cottage is well suited for couples and families alike. The interior is largely high end and might even be too fancy for some people (e.g. We visited the cottage with our 6 month old baby and were scared of staining the nice table cloth so removed it.). The cottage, and in particular the kitchen, is well kitted out; you'll find everything you need to cook a nice meal for the family (you'd only need to bring the food). The owners have also kindly provided a booklet with information about local shops, restaurants and other amenities. They even provided a cot and a high chair for our baby.
Where there is room for improvement is the heating arrangement. We visited the cottage in November when it was already quite cold in Bootle. There were no radiators downstairs in the living room and kitchen, only a wood stove which you kept having to load with pre-chopped wood from just outside the cottage. I supposed, while this added to the country feel of the cottage, it could get annoying to keep having to go outside to get the wood and filling up the stove. Also, this meant that you had to be home and awake to keep it warm. In the mornings when we'd come down or when we'd return from a day out, it would be freezing and would take quite some time to warm up after starting the fire.
There were radiators upstairs in the bedrooms but they were pre-set and timed so it would sometimes get quite cold there too. It would have been nice to be able to control the heat ourselves. However, after mentioning to Jim and Anne, the owners, that we would like more heat they were more than happy to help and gave us a portable radiator. This helped to some extent but of course that radiator could only be in 1 room at a time. I was most concerned about the heat because of our baby e.g. having to change him in a cold room.
The owners, Jim and Anne, and their family are very nice people who were more than happy to help with any query and Jim and his daughter even gave us an informative tour of the farm! And they were very kind to us when we accidentally broke the glass of the wood stove while loading it with wood. I'm not sure if I'd return to the cottage with a baby in the winter but all in all, it was a very nice and cosy place to visit and we'd definitely recommend it.
