Small Barn

A lovely cottage with beautiful viewsa bit remote and a tight road to reach it, not for the faint hearted. We had some people staying next door in the big cottage and didn’t we know it, it’s just as if they were in the next room! We could hear them chatting and laughing, not their fault we could hear them. It's only separated by an adjoining door! Luckily they were only there for two nights any longer our stay would have been ruined. The sofa could do with upgrading and could do with a teapot and a sweeping brush. We had a good week as it was nice and quiet eventually.

We arrived Friday night after an eventful journey as the directions from the booking agent sent us right past! We were impressed as it’s beautifully appointed and the views are wonderful. It seemed a perfect little bolt hole to get away from the world and relax. However, this was spoiled by a load of hunters arriving at 8.15am Saturday, I was wandering around the kitchen (which looks out onto the garden) in my nightwear making breakfast. They parked at each side of our little enclosed garden and there were lots of dogs running round the fence which upset our little dog. It would just have been nice to get the ‘heads up’ so we knew this would happen, a note left in the cottage would have been fine. We felt uncomfortable with so many strangers milling about so close to the cottage. Hunters were back on Tuesday too and blocked our car in, I asked a nice gentleman in tweed who the car belonged to and he assured me it would be moved so we could get out. Which it was, very quickly too. Nothing against them, they all seemed very nice, but they were a bit too close to the barn and it felt like a bit of an invasion of our privacy. There is also a bigger barn attached with a connecting door, so if you get noisy guests there don’t expect a relaxing time! Fortunately the girls partying on Saturday kept it down later, there was just a bit of raucous singing to “I’m every woman”. First night and my attempt at a shower; the shower is higher than the shower screen and difficult to get going. It was freezing so I turned the hot tap up a touch and the shower pelted me with really hot water and soaked the bathroom! My hubby did manage to sort it to a reasonable temperature in the end, so it was ok. The water pressure in the taps is very forceful even in the kitchen if you turned a tap on too far it blasted water everywhere. Also in the kitchen; this place is remote, difficult to get to with narrow lanes so we took lots of food with us. Only to find, quite a small fridge with only an ice box (very iced up too) and no spare cupboard for the food we’d brought with us. The few cupboards there are, are all full of pots, pans, crockery and cleaning products etc. Nice to have clean tea towels, towels and washing up sponge to use. I had taken our own, but didn’t need them. The barn is cosy and the views from the garden are stunning, the log burner is a nice touch too, making it extra cosy on cooler nights. It’s perfectly placed for exploring the North Yorkshire and Teeside/Cleveland areas, there are lots of lovely places to go and we took full advantage of the position to do so. Ormesby Hall is well worth a visit, as is Saltburn and Sandsend. If you don’t mind hills then Staithes is worth a visit too. The Lion Inn at Blakey Ridge is a must for a meal, out in the middle of the moors, it’s one of our favourite places to go. We had a really nice break and would probably return as we loved the barn and the views.