The Bothy

I stayed here last month and left a review.

So I feel well placed to do this follow-up review, though draw the reader to my previous review to save repetition. So there has been an improvement in the property. It now has a chair, a simple chair but one which was a most welcome addition. I did not anticipate my suggestion to replace the bed would have been acted upon and I was correct. The awful bed remains but now wise to this bring my own. A necessary nuisance to guarantee a good nights sleep. Not all the occupants of the property are of the same opinion as me regarding the bed. The the addition of a padded waterproof cover my two dogs would definitely give it the ‘thumbs up’! In all probability I will look to a third booking as it’s location is superb and it can be made cosy with either the electric fan heater or the wood burner. The wood burner needs both attention and accessories. Attention as it is nigh on impossible to firmly close the two doors, therefore it is difficult to moderate the heat output and with such a large stove in such a small property you really do not need high heat output. With regard to accessories there are none I could find. The door handle is broken, no gloves to make contact with hot surfaces. Also there now is a table cloth but the table is right close within inches of the stove so the table cloth is dangling far too close and needs to be removed when using the log burner. All in all this property could easily be so much more for only a small investment.

The word ‘marmite’ is sometimes used to describe something that some might love and others not.

I feel this bothy cottage fits that broad description. I think much depends about the person who rents this bothy and where they are coming from and what they want from the accommodation. I travel around a lot throughout the year and when I do I mostly live/sleep in my small campervan with two medium sized dogs, Therefore this bothy cottage is luxury by comparison. It’s easily warmed up with two sources of heat. It’s well insulated so it keeps warm. It has electric, so lighting, a pretty good shower, true no hot water in the sink but that is not an issue. There is hot water from the shower or a kettle. It has the basics including a microwave cooker to allow a simple meal to be cooked. The flooring is easy to keep clean which is a real plus with long haired dogs coming in wet and muddy. There isn’t a hose to clean up muddy paws! Best of all is its fantastic location. It’s right within Rivington country park, the walking is awesome and varied. The property has a really interesting garden, not so useful in the winter months but would be really lovely when the weather is better. However the massive plus for us is that when you go up the garden there is a way out onto the public footpath/bridlepath network. This means at anytime you can leave the property with your dogs and not need to transport them by vehicle. A really massive bonus. A very short distance away are small villages with cafe’s and shops and not much further large towns with all the necessary. As per previous reviews the biggest and most substantial negative is the absolutely awful bed. It is truly shocking and how anyone could have a good night’s sleep on it I don’t know. However I rapidly solved that problem by popping into Preston and buying a camp bed which I shall use the next time I use the property for I have already booked it again. My recommendation is to remove the bed and replace it with really good bunk beds built into the fabric of the room. This would add to its bothy like feel, provide just as much accommodation and create more space in the centre of the room. Then include a fold up table and fold up chairs which give the small space a greater flexibility. The one further change I would make is to swap the utensils over for something of a higher quality. Some good cutlery and a pair of scissors that work, but those are small things that would be easy and relatively inexpensive to change. The big issue is the bed, and lack of chairs. Solve that and the star rating will go up for sure.

Very basic, no hot running water, apart from shower, uncomfortable bed, sagged in the middle.

Considering how little to do , to tidy the property the checking in time of 1700hrs seems unnecessarily late.