The Smithy

Aug 5th, 2021

A lovely cottage with plenty of room for 4 people. There is a lovely double bedroom with a nice amount of storage and a rack for a suitcase, this is where I slept - the bed was comfortable and covers were of a good quality. The other bedroom wasn't used during my stay but looked pleasant and had a shower room attached. The main bathroom was upstairs and had a extremely large bath as well as a raised cistern style toilet and well proportioned sink. Hot water was a resource we had to be careful to conserve when using the fire which appears to heat the water there was no problem but without it we ran out of hot water reasonably quickly, there is a hot water booster switch which might have helped but by the time we ran out it was too late to use the switch. The greatest part of this property during my stay was the fireplace, it is of stove type and is multi-fuel, there was plenty of fuel provided which was available outside from the side of the cottage where there was a large log store and a coal bunker. It took a while to heat up but once it did it provided enough heat for the entire house. I met one of the owners while I was there and he was polite and helpful and listened to the problems I'd had and gave good solutions. There is a good sized kitchen and while you probably wouldn't want to cook a Christmas dinner in it it is a good size for cooking most meals. There is also a large dining table which would comfortably accommodate at least 4. There is an upstairs sitting room with a good sized TV, sky box, DVD player and plenty of entertainment. I had taken a games console which I plugged in on an available HDMI and had no problems using with the TV. The cottage has excellent wifi with good coverage and speed which was fast enough for watching YouTube/Netflix. There is adequate car parking for at least one car, the parking area can accommodate 2 cars but the owner parked their car on the other space for most of my stay. The parking is tight as it is walled on both sides of the small road leading up to it and there isnt a massive amount of space to maneuver - a large car may have problems, my small Yaris had no issues.
Nov 22nd, 2019