Low Shipley Cottage, Barnard Castle

We have just got back from staying at Low Shipley Cottage & would recommend it to anyone. The owners, Derek and Nina, are fantastic. Nothing was too much for them. The cottage itself is absolutely beautiful, much bigger than the pictures seem, spotlessly clean. The hot tub was a great addition to the cottage. The location is stunning, the track down is quite uneven but don’t let this put you off. The views are breath taking! Stargazing was great on clear nights. We will definitely be returning very soon.

We have just been to Low Shipley Cottage and what a fantastic week away. We wanted a perfect, relaxing week in a great place. Low Shipley did not disappoint. The pictures do not do the cottage justice, the bedrooms and bathrooms are hotel standard, the kitchen in well equipped and the living room is large, but very cozy. The hot tub, wood fired, is great, the view from the hot tub is to die for. Even in the winter weather it was great. The road to the cottage is partly unmade but was fine. The hosts are very friendly and helpful when we needed anything. They are seriously undercharging for the cottage……all in all, an amazing week in a perfect cottage.

If you are going to stay in a cottage for a mini break, this is the place to book. Very quiet, scenic and friendly owners. The owners would bend over backwards to help with your stay and really made the hole experience so perfect. The hot tub in the cottage was excellent and has stunning views. The cottages have ample space and cannot hear other people within other cottages due to super thick walls. Plenty to be able to do round the cottage with the village Barnard castle. Overall, I cannot rate this place any higher or the staff. Will 10000% be returning in the future.

Review long overdue. Circumstances! We have only recently been staying in holiday cottages and I soon learned to pack my own cleaning things. Not needed here, I didn't even take them inside as the bathroom was perfect, the cleanest I have encountered . A real credit to the owners. No sign of any previous residents.,what a lovely start to our short break. The bedrooms were lovely; simply furnished with such comfortable beds , nice bedding and very quiet. Plenty of places of interest to visit locally, excellent transport to go further afield, perfect peace at ' home' ' if that is what you want. Only regret? Not taking my telescope for those night skies. Next time!

We were very pleased to find everything so clean and welcoming. The beds were extremely comfortable and the area so quiet, perfect for a very relaxing week where it was so easy to combine visits to towns and cities with enjoying the lovely countryside.

It was very peaceful and the cottage was extremely comfortable and spacious.

A fabulous converted barn away from it all. Low Shipley Cottage is tastefully decorated, with friendly owners who were not intrusive. There are also plenty of great walks from the doorstep.

Low Shipley Cottage was a lovely comfortable cottage and the views were fabulous. We loved the fire, it was very homely/. The owner was very pleasant and helpful.

The entrance road is very bad in places and not good for loaded or low set car. The bottom of the car scraped a few times even with careful driving. The cattle grids are low to the road also. The farm is a bit untidy looking and not inviting at all. The cottage is lovely ! but the shower pressure is dire. Many of the lights have no working bulbs. The rain was running down the outside of the log burner chimney all night, we left a voice mail and a text to the owners as no one answered the door. We are still waiting for any kind of response to that. I laid newspapers down to soak up the water. Could not put the log burner on as only two logs. Also as mentioned by previous renters Wi-Fi non existent. The beds were comfy and rooms warm. The car had a soft tyre which some guys loading vans looked at and recommended a garage for repair as there was a screw in it. We went back the farm road very cautiously the garage was excellent and soon had us on our way. I feel it is a shame the cottage needed some simple care and a bit more cleaning, ( cutlery tray, cobwebs also bulbs, no matches to light fire, logs for the fire) it did let it down.

The cottage was very comfortable & furnished to a high standard. There were beautiful views and it was in a perfect location for walking & was near to a market town.

Beautiful and well maintained cottage with superb views.

We chose this particular cottage because there were two couples and this cottage had two bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms and it was so convenient. The cottage was situated in a very good area with so many places of interest to see. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Low Shipley.

The accommodation was lovely & spacious and the bonus of having 2 bathrooms was brilliant! The views were absolutely stunning! The peace & tranquillity was second to none! We totally enjoyed our stay here, a stunning place to stay!

This is a beautiful cottage & the photos provided does not do it justice. It is much larger than it looks. The cottage is all on one floor with a toilet, laundry room, kitchen, lounge & two bedrooms each with their own on-suite. It is very cosy inside & very nicely decorated. Outside you have a nice lawn with stunning views over the country side. The sheep seem to like the garden too as they frequently jumped over the wall to enjoy the grass. The beds are comfy but new pillows are needed as they're a little bit too soft. Each bathroom has a very deep bath with shower over it. Many people have commented on the road & yes it is bad. If you have a low car you're better not to bother but it is worth it once you're down there. FYI Wifi is advertised but there is none. You also won't get any phone signal in the area. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Very quiet and very relaxing. Owner particularly pleasant and helpful. The cottage is spacious and well equipped. There are some great places to visit only a few miles away e.g. Raby castle, Eggleston Hall gardens and fabulous nursery also the town of Barnard Castle is a very enjoyable place to walk around. The Bowes Museum is outstanding.

The accommodation was exactly as described, very thoughtfully equipped, and in a beautiful setting!

Fabulous cottage,ideal for two couples,spent new year at this cottage with friends.lovely bedrooms very large kitchen diner,only drawback was the unmade road down to the cottage.

We liked the property as a base - lovely location with stunning views and very comfortable. The bedrooms and bathrooms were decorated to a very high standard and the fire in the living room made the whole place feel very warm and cosy. We enjoyed walking into Barnard Castle, to the local pub and taking our dog out on various walks.

The cottage was excellent - the most difficult choice was which bedroom to use. It surpassed expectations. The journey down the steep track however was challenging! It was the end of the season and it had some very deep potholes, particularly tricky in the wet weather we were experiencing - I would not recommend for a very low vehicle.

Lovely cottage. Real home from home.

Good location. Beautiful barn conversion; clean and comfortable accommodation.

The property surpassed expectations. As many previous guests have said, the pictures do not convey the spaciousness and charm.

It was a lovely cottage, in a very relaxing, scenic area. The rooms were comfortable and modern, with some lovely finishing touches. It was warm and cosy, and it felt like home from home. The owners were very friendly and helpful when we needed them. We would definitely recommend, and would go back again like a shot!

The property is a real gem. Much bigger than expected. Well decorated and very well appointed. Well situated for good walks. Owners very friendly.

The standard of accommodation was excellent, the cottage well heated with lots of hot water. Outstanding views. The hosts were exceptionally friendly and helpful.

This was our first Christmas away from our family this year, just my husband, our son, myself and not forgetting our dog Brucie. We had to travel seperately due to work commitments, our son and myself arrived on the sunday evening, as we got out of the car we could see through the open curtains a very welcoming fire blazing in the woodburner and a beautifully decorated real tree. Once inside the cottage we couldn't believe the size of it compared to how it looked on the internet! What a top quality renovation with lovely furnishings and wonderful bathrooms. I was so excited on xmas eve knowing my husband and Brucie were arriving to share this delightful cottage. We all loved it. We had a very good meal at the Fox and Hounds in Cotherstone and then settled in for a perfect xmas. Derek and Ruth, the owners were most helpful and friendly. I'm sure we will visit this lovely cottage again.

My wife and I went to this cottage for a long weekend for what was said to be “peace and tranquillity” – we were sadly VERY disappointed ! Thus, although the advertisement shows nice pictures and describes a nice setting etc., it is what the advertisement doesn’t say that caused us to have a miserable time. For example, before you even reach the cottage, you have to negotiate the variously described access road (“1.5mile unmade road”; “The farm track is uneven in places”). Neither of these truly reflects the truth - the road can be roughly split into three, 0.5mile sections. The first and last sections are fine, but the middle, approximately half mile section would do justice to an off-road assault course for 4 x 4's, tanks etc. ! Not only was the road extremely steep and with no discernible passing places and a steep drop on one side, but was full of enormous potholes, jagged rocks etc. through which it was very difficult to find a route that did not mean the bottom of our vehicle being scraped. As to the implied suggestion that this is all compensated for by the fact that the road "affords beautiful views", this is in our view clearly meant to mislead, as there is no opportunity to take these views in, with 100% concentration being required on negotiating the next hurdle in the track. And, all this was on a nice dry, sunny day - what it would be like on a wet, windy or icy day, I dread to think! Therefore, not only did this NOT get our short break off to a good start, but also meant that we could not face doing this part of the entrance twice every time we wanted to go out of the farm and so were virtually forced to stay at the cottage for the duration of our stray, but also meant that both of us spent the whole of the period we were there, worrying about how, and if, we would be able to get out safely at the end of our stay - not exactly designed to enable us to relax, this being the main purpose of our trip. Then we come to the cottage itself and its location, facilities etc. It consisted of a dwelling adjoined at one end by the owner's farmhouse and on the other end by a derelict barn, with another, partly converted cottage sticking out of the rear of the cottage. Hardly I think one's impression of what the 'cottage' consisted of from the pictures and descriptions given! And then, about 10 metres opposite the 'cottage', there was another, partly run-down barn that had within it a Clubhouse, with bar and TV etc., for the residents of the approximately 50 berth, static caravan site just down the lane from the cottage! As the cottage had no frosted glass etc. in ANY rooms and many of the windows looked out onto the main courtyard towards to 'Clubhouse as well as the main courtyard', we hade to keep most of the curtains closed to maintain some sort of privacy during our stay. Then we come again to the place being for anyone wanting "peace and tranquility" ! Our stay was effectively for 2 full days (Saturday & Sunday) with us arriving on a Friday evening and departing on Monday morning. On the Saturday, there was, throughout the day, constant noise from the courtyard right outside the cottage, with various cars, vans, lorries, quad bikes and a strange looking, loud, off-road vehicle (being heartily revved up on a number of occasions) and then of course, in the evening, the Clubhouse opened and we had people coming and going from that late into the evening. Mercifully, the Sunday was a lot better, with only a few cars and vans coming and going, but by then, effectively half our holiday of 'peace and tranquility' had been ruined. Turning next to the outside facilities i.e. The "small, private, pretty, patio". Well, this turned out to be small OK, but it was overlooked by part of the owner's lawn (and in future will have two windows of the part-restored, next door cottage overlooking it when the conversion is finished), was far from pretty, being very dull and rather overgrown with weeds etc.. It had in it a large, metal table, painted blue but with a lot of green (moss, verdigris ??) in it with 4 similar blue chairs in various states of disrepair and stability.. There were no cushions for the chairs, so they were very uncomfortable to sit on and there was no sign of the promised BBQ. Then there is the "large" or "extensive " shared lawn. This is a piece of grass, about the size of that you might expect in the average detached house and NOT what I would class as 'extensive'. It had on it a broken swing, various other childrens toys along with a line full of washing. The lawn was not fully enclosed (which was not claimed), but which we had hoped it would be as the cottage was said to be dog friendly. Hence, we needed to always have our dog on the lead, particularly once the owner told us that just recently they had lost one of their own dogs that went out one day and never returned! With respect to the interior of the Cottage, we found it quite roomy, bright and clean. There were a few complaints and omissions that probably a person renting any property are likely to find and that, if it had not been for all the above criticisms, we might have regarded as fairly minor and probably easy to remedy. Thus, in the Kitchen, although there was a nice new Microwave, there was no microwave cookware to use in it and the Oven, although working OK, has seen better days. Other equipment in the Kitchen was all very nice. There were no cleaning cloths etc. that would have helped cleaning down surfaces etc. The hard, wooden seats in the Kitchen could do with some cushions and perhaps a couple of upright chairs (with cushions) and a small table wouldn't go amiss in the large sitting room. The TV in the Sitting Room was NOT a Freeview TV, being one of the older analogue sets which could only pick up channels 1 to 5, when it was working (which it didn't on the Friday evening - we did try to raise the owners, but could not get in touch with them). However, it worked OK for the rest of our stay. There was also no Radio that we could see and when we saw what was necessary to get the WiFi each time we wanted to use it (my computer could see no WiFi signal, so it presumably meant that this was only switched on, at request rather than being available 24/7), we decided against trying. The bedrooms and en-suites were very nice and the only comments we would make about these is that the TV's in both bedrooms were so small, that they could not be seen very well at all from the bed - they really need to be much larger-screened versions and that there were no loo brushes or other cleaning equipment in either en-suite. Finally, we soon found that leaving any of the windows open, as we normally like to do, was not such a good idea as this allowed the sewage smell that wafted about the site form time to time, to get into the cottage. So, as I am sure anyone reading the above will be only too well aware by now, we are VERY upset about this weekend break, which purported to offer us the chance of peace, quiet. privacy and tranquillity but which in our eyes and I believe most others reading the above account, will think of more as a complete nightmare ! In the end, we were just pleased to ‘escape’ from the cottage in one piece and back to our own house where we have more ‘peace and tranquillity’ than we found at this cottage.

The family who own the property were extremely helpful and the setting was outstanding.