Samstone

We had a great holiday and it truly is a lovely cottage but there were a few issues that spoilt it personally for us.

Both myself and my daughter have a feather allergy and all of the pillows, cushions and quilts in the property are feather filled. Due to this we had to remove the cushions from the sofa so we could use it and purchase new pillows so we could sleep at night -luckily it was warm enough at night that we could dispose of the quilts. We appreciate that you probably use feather as it’s a sign of luxury (like the cottage in general) but perhaps having a notification on the booking page that feather pillows etc are used or having synthetic pillows on-site as an option would be useful. Also, perhaps a new 3 piece suite that’s more comfortable would be nice as would a bbq to really enjoy the lovely garden and its views. To clarify we had a lovely time and it’s a lovely place just a few comments that stopped it being 5 stars personally for us.

The accomodation was perfect for our group.

The kitchen is very well equipped with everything we needed, including 2 fridges & plenty of china & glassware. The rooms are charming & we were very comfortable. We stayed during the heatwave & appreciated the fans & advice for keeping the house cool. A peaceful location, in beautiful countryside, with great walks from the door.

We had a wonderful stay in Samstone a homely, attractive property, which is clearly loved by many in such a pretty location.

It was a perfect setting to celebrate my dad's birthday with plenty of space for a couple of relatives to join us. Unfortunately we were having such a good time that I forgot our departure date was on Friday and not Saturday so we were a bit surprised when the cleaners arrived - totally my fault. It would have been helpful to have a reminder about the leaving date and time in your email correspondence if possible in future. Also a small point - couple of cloths to wipe the worktops in the kitchen would have been helpful, I forgot to tell the cleaners and a BIG thank you to them as they so patient and polite with us on the final day. Best wishes and thank you for a lovely holiday experience. Julia

We stayed at Samstone late May, early June 2026.

At that time the surrounding countryside was in its full breathtaking glory. Samstone sits in an elevated position over looking this wonderful countryside. Donhead St. Mary is a small, quaint and tranquil village, and is a very good place to relax and unwind. The house was very comfortable, and well catered for. There were many interesting places to visit nearby, and the local country walks were top rate. Over all I can highly recommend Samstone as a holiday location, as there are so many tourist attractions to visit nearby, including castles, abbeys, churches, gardens, historic houses, museums and quaint villages and small market towns. You could say that the surrounding area is an area that is often over looked by holiday makers, but in truth is a hidden secret, that will never fail to delight. Highly recommend ! .

Really lovely house and position, in a very quiet small village.

Lots of great walks from the door and Shaftesbury is only 10mins away. Salisbury is ca. 35 mins drive (lovely city) and there are loads of local NT and EH sites to visit, lots of quiet villages and good pubs locally plus the Lido at Shaftesbury. All rooms are comfortable and the kitchen is very well-equipped - we always appreciate salt, pepper, oil, bin bags etc!There's lots of storage and dining space - it doesn't feel cramped for the maximum of 8 people. N.B. No barbecue or sun loungers (but there's a patio dining set and plenty of normal outdoor chairs). We had a lovely holiday and would definitely come back.

This is our fourth visit to the house in the spring and we have have enjoyed every visit.

We will be back again next year

A wonderful family house: spacious and well equipped, in a great area to explore.

Lovely property, great for a multigenerational group of adults.

Only improvement to make would be to supply larger cups.

Fabulous cottage!

Beautifully presented, spotless, quality bedding, comfortable beds. Amazing views over open countryside, location perfect, great dog walks from the cottage. Plenty of things to do in the local area. We hope to return soon.

The property exceeded our expectations in terms of the comfortable space and the equipment provided was much more than just the minimum.

The bedrooms were enormous and the beds extremely comfortable. The fridge/freezer plus an additional fridge, and the washing machine were all in good order. The chocolate, wine and coffee on arrival were a nice touch. Very welcoming. It is in a peaceful location, with a good garden and wonderful views. Good for quiet time (books, jigsaws, cards, games, etc all available); for walking the many footpaths (good selection of maps) nearby; and for visiting Stourhead, Salisbury, Bournemouth, Shaftesbury, Compton Abbas airfield, Win Green hilltop and Old Wardour Castle. All enjoyable and within a reasonable distance. Despite the previous reviews, there was not a problem with the temperature of the showers and the iron and ironing board looked new. We would happily stay here again.

Our party of 8 thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Samstone (5 nights).

The view from the patio over rolling hills was beautiful, with glorious sunsets every night. The en suite bedroom upstairs was particularly comfortable with the same gorgeous views. The family of four were well catered for in the twin bedded and double bedroom with a shared bathroom. The downstairs bedroom was perfectly comfortable but without the beautiful decoration and soft furnishings of upstairs. Outdoor furniture with cushions was good. The kitchen was well equipped and had everything we needed. We would highly recommend this property with its easy access to Salisbury, Bath, Shaftesbury and Stourhead.

Great property with bags of character and space in a lovely rural and quiet setting.

Everything we could have needed was provided.

Exceeded our expectations, lovely property.

We had a fantastic stay here.

4 adults, 5 kids and 2 dogs...plenty of space for everyone and more to spare. Beautiful location with some lovely walks and a nice pub near by. Highly recommended

The cottage was lovely, homely and comfortable.

The only gripe was the showers. The downstairs shower was far too hot or anyone to use and no way of altering the temperature. The upstairs shower was marginally better but again minimal temperature control and too hot for most of us. it resulted in us sitting in the bath and showering ourselves with the hand held shower which sometimes soaked the bathroom carpet - not a good idea! We realise that this is an ongoing problem so can probably only be rectified by a new tap in the bathrooms. Other than this we thoroughly enjoyed our stay and felt very at home in a lovely house.

Beautiful location and a lovely house.

We had a family reunion with 8 adults and there was ample room for all. The bedrooms are spacious and the views are picture-postcode. The kitchen is well equiped for self catering, with a lovely dining area.

Superb, comfortable cottage in a beautiful village.

Lovely house in a beautiful location… very peaceful.

A few maintenance issues need to be addressed. 1. Downstairs shower temperature uncontrollable (too hot)! 2. Downstairs toilet seat needs attention. 3. Water temperature very hot. Lots of feather bedding and soft furnishings… feathers are coming out! Not good if you have allergies! Overall cleanliness is not good in some areas. (Basins & toilets, etc.) Need a mirror and waste bin in downstairs bedroom. However we enjoyed our stay very much, Henrietta was very kind and considerate. We would certainly consider staying again.

Home from home, a comfortable cottage for a family gathering in a beautiful location.

Lovely stay.

Spacious home with lovely views. Everything you need for a great stay

Very comfortable and spacious house in a lovely location, ideal for walking and cycling in the area - could only be improved by enclosing the garden.

It is a beautiful home in a great location.

For Christmas it was so well equipped-lunch for 12 people! Thank you for the decorations and panettone:) Elaine xx

We had a fantastic stay at Samstone.

The property exceeded our expectations in terms of the space on offer and the location which was just lovely. We hope to stay again sometime.

We had a lovely holiday, it had everything we needed.

Lots to see in the local area, some short walks from the house. Two family's came together and had a wonderful werk.

This cottage is in a lovely location and with great access to some lovely walks and pubs.

It’s really well equipped and had a lovely clean but cozy feel about it, felt more like a family home than a holiday rental which was lovely. The views were great and the rooms large. A cake and cider on arrival which went down nicely! We enjoyed the Forester as a local supper but wider a field we found the Beckford Arms which was lovely. Had everything we wanted and great and pleasant communications with the owners. Instructions to find it were really good and despite icey conditions it was an easy journey from both directions to the cottage (some of us came from the Bath direction and some from the London and Winchester direction). We really enjoyed our stay here.

Lovely location near the top of the hill with far-reaching views to the rear of the property.

All the rooms were generously sized with a practical layout and more than enough room for a party of 6 people to spread out and be comfortable. Property gave off the vibe of a family home rather than a holiday let, the advantage of this being it was welcoming and homely. A couple of the older seats in the living room will need replacing soon, and we used the cushions from there to bolster the height of the dining chairs as they seemed a little low. Well equipped kitchen, with 2 fridges which we found useful to store drinks in the heatwave. Personally we would have found pasta bowls useful, but that is a preference for our family for some meals. Parking for 2 cars easily, 3 at a pinch, to the side of the building. We'd recommend visiting Compton Airfield (Runway Cafe) to watch the small planes come and go (as seen from the patio at the house) - yummy traybakes and hot chocolate! Plenty of walks from the front door - eg. to Donhead St Andrew, or through the fields at the back of the house. Good selection of maps - in particular the waterproof local area ones in the kitchen (yellow in colour). Thoroughly enjoyed our time there and would happily return.

Samstone is a lovely, spacious and very clean property.

It was also very well placed during the heatwave as its location meant we had a perfect cooling through draught with windows open front and back. The garden was a lovely bonus as it was the perfect place to sit and read and enjoy the compete peace and quiet broken only by the occasional squabbling crow! I would highly recommend this property.

The property is absolutely beautiful we all loved it.

The downside for me was that the house was very dusty and had loads of cobwebs everywhere, I know with an older house you expect this but clearly the carpets etc had not been cleaned properly, we tried to Hoover but the vacuum wasn’t working very well. The furniture is old but was comfortable, I didn’t like all the feather stuffed furniture and bedding. The garden is beautiful! But be aware that the garden lawn is not really toddler friendly as it has a large slope so had to walk around constantly watching the little one and made garden toys hard to use. But on the whole I would recommend this property highly. The area is beautiful and so peaceful, close to a lot of amenities and places to visit, Longleat safari is a must.

A wonderful cottage set in peaceful and beautiful surroundings.

Plenty of space and well kept garden. Very helpful owners giving us useful upfront information. A great area with plenty of walks which our little dog enjoyed. It felt like a very comfortable home.

This was a perfect home for 6 friends to share and explore the walking in a beautiful part of the country.

The house was warm and welcoming and had all the facilities we needed. Local information was a great help. Thank you.

It was a very smart and comfortable accommodation .

Each room had a beautiful view. The kitchen was a good size and the living room was very spacious. We spent some time out in the garden. We visited a lot of interesting places in the vicinity like Stourhead at Mere, gold hill,shaftesbury cathedral, Kingston lacey, durdle dor, lulwoth cove, sandbanks etc

The house was as big as we expected and set in a on beautiful location with views to the hills of Cranbourne Chase.

We enjoyed a glass of wine sat on the terrace looking at the view and deer spoting ! We played golf and can recommend the nearby Rushmore Park course which is a great course in a wonderful country setting. The house and location exceeded our expectations . we had a wonderful week.

We highly recommend this beautiful, peaceful cottage.

It was very clean with lovely large rooms, a well equipped kitchen and a beautiful garden with amazing views, where we had lovely evenings playing Badminton. We visited NT Stourhead, Kingston Lacy and Stonehenge and even had a race up the famous Gold Hill in Shaftesbury. There are loads of lovely countryside walks to go on nearby. We had a marvellous week enjoyed by six adults and one dog! Thank You!

Cottage was great, only downfall was little things like ironing board, very old.

But other than that place was fantastic, would stay there again, thinking of booking again soon

Positives: - Large rooms - Nice towels - Good bedding (although summer duvets (not 10.

5 tog) would have been preferable) - Great views - Ample parking for 3 4x4 cars Negatives: - Lack of cleanliness - kitchen and upstairs carpets were dirty (as property accepts dogs this was understandable for downstairs but we did not expect the upstairs bedrooms to be quite so grubby/stained) - Upstairs bathrooms were carpeted which we did not feel was ideal - The under oven drawer was dirty as was some of the kitchen equipment (the small roasting tray in the property was dirty, and the garlic press in the drawer still had old garlic in it had not been washed up properly) - No handle on fridge door, just a grubby, tatty bit of plated fabric - Large dust balls in the downstairs bedroom - The games that were provided were very dusty - The ironing board was poor (useless!) - During Covid we felt that the property should be spotless - Lack of equipment in the kitchen i.e. a tiny old microwave, No baking sheets, only two large saucepans bearing in mind the property was for eight people, no large serving dishes, only two sharp knives (one small one large plus breadknife) - Only one small fridge despite plenty of room in the utility for a second fridge (one fridge is not enough for eight people for a week) - Property sleeps eight but there was only soft seating in the lounge for six which was fairly old and uncomfortable - Only one TV for eight people (Could easily provide additional soft seating and a TV on the extra large landing) - Far too much ‘personal’ items about the house (old bedding in cupboards and drawers, a real stuffed owl in the bedroom!, old gloves and gators in the drawers) - Cleaning products, including bleach, in an unsecured low cupboard (despite high cupboards in the utility room which could of housed these) - Although we were warned in advance, the hot water was dangerously hot - Cup full of cigarette butts outside the French doors - Property says it accepts dogs however the garden was not at all secure, and would not have been secure for children either. The end of the garden had an 8 foot drop that was not secure. We feel gates are required to stop children/dogs running straight out to the road As this space does not seem to allow photos to be uploaded, I have also sent an identical email with photos attached.

Comfortable and well equipped house in beautiful, peaceful surroundings.

Perfect for a family get-together.

This was an absolute winner!

We've stayed in lots of rentals, but the combination of the amount of space in the house and the view from the windows and terrace out onto the pretty garden, across the meadows and over to the hills beyond made it a perfect place to stay. It was so quiet and peaceful, you could hear and watch the birds soaring overhead, & lay on the lawn and watch the clouds go by. We walked locally, visited NT Stourhead & Montacute, Abbotsbury Subtropical gardens (fabulous), and art galleries and shops in Salisbury, Shaftesbury & Dorchester. A lovely meal eaten at The Forester in Donhead St Andrew, the staff were very friendly and covid-safe. A great place to celebrate a special birthday. Many thanks!

The house was very comfortable with amazing views.

The kitchen was equipped with everything we needed. We enjoyed walking across to the Foresters Arms in Donhead St Andrews & The Benett Arms in Semley.

Beautiful house with the most stunning of views.

Really well equipped and furnished. We would have no hesitation in booking this property again and recommend Sykes, faultless service all the way through. Thank you