“First the good points.”
It’s a well laid out cottage; clean, warm and comfortable, with a good level of equipment in the kitchen for a self catering break. The bedroom is nice and large with good storage for clothes.
The sitting room is pleasant, with a dining table, comfortable easy chair and a two seater bed settee.
The bathroom works well, albeit obtaining a satisfactory temperature of the shower by adjusting the hot and cold flow from the taps is a bit tricky to master to keep a consistent temperature. The provision of a wall mounted soap dish would make a very welcome improvement.
There is excellent provision for shared external facilities with seating, bbq area, play area, games room, laundry and a lovely view of the lake.
But.. it’s not obvious in the description on the Sykes website that it is one of 5 cottages in a multiple stable conversion complex set around a central courtyard, and depending on occupancy can be generally noisy.
This, and the other cottages, are also know as Ore Valley Holiday Cottages and a more accurate description of what to expect is shown on that website.
Footfall and TV noise comes into the bedroom from the adjoining Hayloft Cottage and bathroom noises from Horseshoe Cottage can be heard in the sitting room area.
There isn’t anywhere to sit outside the cottage and eat breakfast for example, without being in full view of all the other cottages. It’s a bit of a stretch to say in the Sykes description that it’s a romantic retreat with the potential for so many other people being around in quite close proximity.
Although the kitchen has a number of cupboards, there isn’t anywhere spare to store the usual self catering supplies, so these clutter the worktops. An additional empty cupboard would make all the difference.
Don’t rely on the map location on the Sykes website, it refers to a totally separate property to the east. The written description is accurate though.
That said, we had a very enjoyable time in Poppy Cottage. The location is very handy for exploring the area and it is in a truly rural location.