Gatesgarth, Coniston

A lovely location and a lot of the experience was positive but dismayed to arrive and find muck from the hot tub having been emptied all over the decking steps and a used ashtray left out. After some initial cleaning by us, further issues arose from being unable to use the main oven for two days before we chanced across the mains switch hidden behind umpteen pans (which had all seen better days) in a cupboard. The wine chiller unit wasn’t working, neither was the ice dispenser in the fridge. Had these been labelled as not working, we would not have wasted time trying to work that out. The dishwasher is straight forward to work but buttons worn out (and it is very small and doesn’t clean well) so take your marigolds as you’ll be washing up all week. We couldn’t adjust the temp of the hot tub which was set at a ridiculously hot 40 deg. We had to wait until tub man came on 5th day of our stay. The roof windows in upstairs bedrooms had fallen out with their control units so we were unable to open them - very uncomfortable as we had hot weather. We found it difficult to get managers to deal with all these issues as there is no one living locally. We singled out several chipped items of crockery and washed dirty pan found in cupboard. We’re very dissatisfied with derisory compensation offered subsequently as felt our holiday much compromised. Feel place very overpriced given all these difficulties.

The house is next door to a builders yard this was not mentioned by sykes holidays We were woken up by the builders Mon to Friday at 8am with out fail .They worked till 6 at least moving stones and rubble so u can imagine the noise in wat was meant to be a peaceful holiday .We even ate our breakfast on the patio with the builders watching us . When we complained to the owner his attitude was basically "tough"..This is a very expensive house to rent so is expecting a bit of peace and quite too much to ask .The house is built to a poor quality with lots of issues including ovens that are hard to operate and a dishwasher that was so small and didn't clean anything .This property is not worth the £5,000 we paid to stay for a very unjoyable week

Property was not up to standard. Windows would not open due to battery packs not working. We made the owner aware, and he did nothing about this, despite the issue being raised by others in June. When trying to open the windows, the handle broke off and we were charged £1000 at the end of the stay to install a new window. I struggled to sleep in the back room as it was too hot and the road is very noisy. The property is also next to a building site and backs onto an unsightly caravan site. The dish washer does not work correctly and there is a note to bang on the front when it stops working. Even when it did run, it didn’t get anything clean. Hot tub man comes in without warning, not ideal if you have nervous aggressive dogs. The whole experience was ruined by the unhelpful owner who refused to help us with the problems we raised at the beginning of our stay.

We had a family long weekend at Gatesgarth. The property is truly sensational - the finest we have ever stayed in. We had a cinema night in, a delightful walk to Tarn Hows, a cycle around Coniston Water, numerous dips into the hot tub as well as lots of trips to the pretty Lake District sights locally. We could not recommend this accommodation highly enough.

Gatesgarth is an amazing place. The whole property is stunning inside, with generously proportioned rooms, an open plan style for living and kitchen areas, use of quality materials and careful finishing, all done with a very satisfying attention to detail that makes you smile. Gatesgarth has been well designed to take advantage of the amazing views from the property, which can be enjoyed from upstairs, downstairs or even from the hot tub! And with Coniston centre and the lake only a very short walk, it’s hard for us to imagine staying anywhere else now. We can’t wait to return.