Smithy Cottage, POOLEY BRIDGE

Rated 5/50 by ToniM84 on 3rd September 2017

"5 adults and 1 Labrador. Couldn't have found a better place to stay! Beautiful cottage with a bathroom/an suite for each bedroom. Huge loving room and stunning kitchen/conservatory leading out to a perfect enclosed garden. The fence at the bottom of the garden is a sou me layered wire fence as there were sheep in the field behind but it was perfectly secure. The sheep were very interested in my dog . Very clean and tidy and comfortable. Location is spot on, 10mins from pooley bridge, 15-20 from Penrith. Will absolutely go back again, Couldn't have asked for better."

Rated 3/50 by Vinpaul B on 27th August 2017

"We spent a weekend in the cottage and it was a nice break away from the hustle and bustle of city life. The cottage is lovely and spacious. On the ground floor, there is a large living room, kitchen with a lovely sitting area that opens up to the garden, a large dining room. The master bedroom is nice and spacious. It was good that the floors were all hardwood on the ground floor as we had brought our dog along. The cottage seemed nice and clean when we walked in. The kitchen was squeaky clean. The bathrooms looked ok. The linen looked a bit dated in the single and double rooms. The reason why I'm only giving this cottage 3 stars is the encounters we had with spiders during the duration of our stay. We spent one evening in the living room just before we went to sleep, we saw a massive spider on the walls. Unfortunately, we were unable to catch it, and that was the last we stepped into the living room. Whilst going to sleep there was big spider number two inside the bed in one of the rooms (future guests are advised to shake the duvet and bed cover thoroughly before settling in). The next day, we found another massive spider in the dining room. Basically, if you are not into spiders, let this be a warning. Additionally, the heating system was a bit difficult to figure out. And we struggled to find out how to get hot water as the heating was off. All in all, it was a pleasant stay, however, there was a constant fear of spotting a spider throughout our stay which was not much fun! Maybe this is what we should expect in a cottage, but we have stayed in cottages before and haven't faced this problem before."

Rated 2/50 by Stooross on 19th August 2017

"This could be a really outstanding cottage to use as a base for exploring the Lakes. It suffers from poor management, which ultimately (as you can read from our comments in the visitors book in the attached photo) resulted in a highly unsatisfying stay. A real shame."

Rated 3/50 by Mke500 on 18th May 2016

"Location and size of cottage is really good for exploring north lakes. The rest... The place feels tired dirty and a bit un cared for.the main bathroom with the bath was not cleaned so started our holiday cleaning that. We didn't use this bathroom cause it was obvious from the water marks on the floor that it would leak. The curtain is part falling off and the plaster above the window flaking. The bedroom next to that had a spider 2inches big under the quilt probably due to the window not being able to close well. The second bedroom lacks curtains meaning the people sleeping there woke up at 5am when the sun came up. Main bedroom window locked shut and bathroom blinds broken and window doesn't open. Kitchen was generally ok even if lacking certain essentials such as a large pan to boil pasta for 6 people. Kitchen bin is broken but this seems to have been like that for a while. Internet.. Well in 2016 you would expect that to work for 24hours a day.. Not this. Very intermittent, blocks most social pages including Instagram and is slower than the old 54k dial up modems. Back garden is great but the area where the shed is all needs a good clean. It feels run down and un cared for. Called emergency number on the Sunday to try sort out the internet but no one answered the phone or called back."

Rated 2/50 by 658tfs on 6th May 2016

"We had high hopes of Smithy Cottage and I had hoped to give it at least a 4 star rating. First the good points for us - spacious, 3 bedrooms, 3 bath/shower rooms, open fire, internet and the location (5 minutes from my mother in law). We stayed with our 2 grown up sons. However there were so many issues . Windows - many of them are just there to let light in and do not have a facility to open them - for instance in our double bedroom which is not satisfactory at all not being able to open a window. It would have helped had we been able to open the window in our en suite, however the mechanism was broken. In all the bathroom/shower rooms there were patches of black mould - no doubt due to lack of ventilation but again unacceptable. Many lights and lamps either had light bulbs that did not work but also some did not have any bulbs in at all - totally unacceptable that the housekeeper had not checked all these fittings (as I do in our own holiday let). The state of the decoration of the whole house is very poor - lots of marks and scrapes on the walls and large patches of worn paint and patches of damp (for instance round the window seat in the sitting room). Considering it is early still in the season you would expect the decoration to be in good order! In the bathroom with the bath in is a leak to outside. I see this was reported in the visitors book in October and then November 2015 and has still not been fixed. In the kitchen the brabantia bin lid was open when we arrived. I assumed the cleaner had left it open but it was open because it is broken. Also in the kitchen there are big chunks out of the side of the worktop going back to bare wood again - again lack of care and you get the feeling the owners are not really bothered as to the standard that guests should expect. Heating. The underfloor heating works well downstairs. However upstairs are radiators and this is where issues arose. When we woke up on the first morning the radiators were not on and indeed did not give off any warmth untll after 10.00 a.m. - not nice to wake up to cold bedrooms when there are plenty of radiators. Again in the evening the radiators were cold. We "turned" the control up on the landing to 25 but still the radiators were cold. In the end by the 3rd night we found we had to turn the heating control up to 30 to get the radiators to work properly - and then turn the control down to 25 once they had reached the right temperature. We are used to and have always lived in old lake district cottages so are used to old buildings and the cold but were radiators are advertised we expect them to work. The heated towel rails never worked. Towels - we had not expected that towels would not be provided! In the advertisement it does not mention towels so we had not thought to check since it is rare nowadays to rent a property that does not provide towels. It was fortunate that we were only 5 minutes away from my mother in laws so that we could go and get some towels. Many people in the visitors book have complained at arriving to find no towels and having to go out into Penrith on arrival to buy some. If towels are not to be provided then that should be CLEARLY stated on the advertisement. Finally the cottage was not very clean - cobwebs on the landings and layers of dust on the surfaces and television. It is a great shame because essentially this is a lovely cottage with potential to be very good. I was not going to leave a review as I have emailed the Agents - Lakes Cottage Holidays of Carlisle and had expected they would have responded to at least say they had passed my comments onto the owners but have not had a reply."

Rated 4/50 by Gardenangel895 on 6th August 2015

"We were a party of 6 . Grandparents, two daughters, granddaughter (14 years) grandson( 6months) Plenty of space for us all. Village offered opportunity to meander with baby and young dog. Walked along small roads to Pooley bridge , we also walked back but could have caught the bus if we had wanted to.. Took the all day steamer to Glenridding and onto Airs force ( think there could have been a concession for parking at Pooley Bridge if taking the all day ferry ). Visited Penrith ; Birds of Prey and Keswick . There was just a couple of things neglected eg a tap and toilet in main bathroom, blind in double bedroom & back twin bedroom , chairs in conservarory and front door lock. nevertheless a lovely relaxing week Thank you"

Rated 5/50 by A FlipKey Verified Reviewer on 9th November 2013

"We really enjoyed our stay at Smithy Cottage. The location for our requirements was excellent, as some of the party wanted to climb mountains and some wanted to stay local. All the facilities at the cottage were excellent. We had a meal at the pub down the road which again was excellent, and would certainly recommend this."

Rated 4/50 by A FlipKey Verified Reviewer on 16th June 2013

"We had a lovely holiday staying at this cottage,spacious with private garden(despite the weather). The local pub served very nice food although probably more expensive than further afield. Good location for getting to most areas Just a couple of niggles...No towels are provided and there is only one tiny wardrobe in the master bedroom, no others at all!"