Bradshaw House

It's not always easy when you have a disabled person in your party, but when you have two, it's often where can you go that isn't going to be too difficult to get around.

Our previous Sykes holiday was an apartment with a lift, but this was different. Also Castleton itself probably isn't the best place for the disabled, seeing as you have to be able bodied to walk up Cavedale, or any of the four caves in Castleton, even it's castle can be a bit of a climb. However my wife and son managed to get around OK. The cottage itself was very comfortable, our son surprisingly preferred the smallest bedroom, and he slept very well in there. I climbed up the multi-tierd garden myself, it was really nice, and the large table would have been an excellent place to have breakfast if the weather was good, and the family were able to climb the steps. The walk in shower was easy for everyone to access, kitchen had some excellent equipment, just take care when opening the bin, it can switch off the fridge freezer. We had to replace our car a couple of months back as our previous one was written off when a deer ran out in front of us. The new car is a bit bigger to accomodate my wife's mobility scooter, but we were still able to park it in the large space. My wfie had no problems driving her mobility scooter from the house, and drove it all around Castleton. We arrived a bit late in the day on our first day, but there is a nice chippy just a short walk from the house. Our big car was a bit difficult to turn in the lane where the house is, but we found if we carried on up the lane, that would take us to an excellent viewpoint over Castleton. However the views from the cottage were excellent. A good pair of binoculars allow you to se many walkers going up the hills in the distance. Only issue we had, was the local council's digging up so many roads. It seemed every direction from Castleton there were closed roads, temporary traffic lights that delayed just about every journey. The journeys took far longer than they did from the campsite in Edale I stayed at during the eighties. So what can you do if you have a disabled person? Well Sheffield isn't that far, and Meadowhall is massive. Also the Heights of Abraham now allows disabled people to drive mobility scooters onto the cable cars. The holograph museum in Matlock Bath is great too, but you need to climb steps for that. Buxton was a favorite place for my son, An indoor shopping centre, and plenty of charity shops. Bakewell isn't far too, nice place to get some goodies to take back to the relatives. As for Castleton itself, well my wife likes her jewellery shops, although Blue John is becoming a bit rare now so the price of it has risen. If you fancy going to Blue John Caverm, go early as it closes at 3pm.

We had a wonderful stay at Bradshaw House.

The accommodation is well set out with a useful kitchen, lounge area, dining room and bedrooms/bathroom upstairs. One bedroom had a double, the other a double and a single and the smaller room a single at the time of stay. All the beds were very comfortable and we slept well after many hours of walking. Location wise it’s on the edge of Castleton, a few minutes walk to all the pubs and shops. It’s a great base for walking A I’d recommend Mam Tor and the Peak Ridge or over to Kinder Scout if you are a bit more adventurous - we did one the first day and the other the second. When I had a query prior to arriving I spoke with the owner and he was very friendly and helpful. The TV had a Roku stick or something similar so lots of streaming services were available. I’d heartily recommend, it was a great base for our long weekend.

Perfect!