Dog Friendly Cottages In Angus

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Terry - Verified booking

  I should point out that we had to leave a day early due to an emergency back at home and therefore didn't have time to clean the property, we left it as tidy as possible in the circumstances.

  This review was written before we had to leave. Blue Skies Cottage Pros Views Quiet Recliners Washing machine Dining/living room, spacious and comfortable Thermostat - godsend on cold mornings Welcome basket Cons Kitchen Under equipped Not enough small sharp knives and utensils, whisk, potato masher, more cooking spoons etc Not enough baking trays, that said, I can bake a cake but not a casserole Saucepans much too small, shallow and too lightweight for projected sleeps 5 Bin too small for self catering kitchen Don't look down the side or too closely at the cooker, its not pleasant. Bathroom Shower very very narrow for bigger bums and for those with mobility issues, no safe way of exiting the shower, hurt my legs so much I ended up having strip washes instead. Family Bedroom Needs blinds or nets otherwise with a teenager the curtains stay closed 24/7 Needs a wardrobe rather than a sofa and coffee tables, as there is not a large amount of storage space and no hanging space Master bedroom Walk in to 3 wardrobes but two are full of high chairs, cots, etc so nowhere really to store cases etc Hanging space in largest wardrobe but anything longer than tops i.e. dresses end up in a heap at the bottom due to boxes stored in it. Drawers are small The bedside lamps are dangerous, the switches are behind the head of the bed and if you pull one out to get to the switch, it pulls the other one over. People have tried which is why one is broken, they appear to be plugged into an extension cable but the leads to the lamps are much too short. Overall The electrics are a real cause for concern. The badly plugged lamps in the bedroom, the light bulb resting on the hallway shade, the flickering non dimmer dimmer connections in the family bedroom and kitchen Master bedroom is visibly damp, pointed out by another guest in June. The step from living room to kitchen not mentioned anywhere, description says all ground floor, technically it IS but someone with reduced mobility has to take it into account when booking, it makes a huge difference particularly as the bathroom is at the rear of the property, its a high step and for wobbly legs is hard work, a handle would help. Also pointed out by previous guests. Lack of waste bins! Sounds petty but bags hanging on handles isn't a good look. There are only 2 bins, bathroom and kitchen, both are small. Teacakes a nice touch by the kettle, but someone ate one prior to our arrival and left the wrapper behind a cushion in the main bedroom! The garden steps are lethal. They are deep, narrow and have no secure way of keeping your balance, one set goes to the greenhouse, the middle set are narrow and the third set starts in the middle of a flowerbed! Anyone one not totally steady on their legs (of any age) are risking injury. The owners of this property need to do some much needed bits and bobs for this to be worth the £1100 off season amount we paid. The propery is suited far better to a double and twin bedroom rather than squeeze 5 people in, not including cots! They are very clued up on fire safety but it seems at the cost of making sure its a true home from home. We have been hiring cottages for 25yrs and this is the first we have had such issues with.

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• Catherine - Verified booking

  We had a lovely relaxing time at Brae of Airlie Farm.

  Bill, the caretaker was very friendly and the information provided by the owner before our stay was fantastic. Positives: Lovely location and views. Beautiful gardens with so much space. The house is lovely, spacious and with loads of interesting and quirky pictures and an amazing selection of books. The ping pong table and dart board are a bonus and we and our teenagers enjoyed many games. The tap water tastes delicious. Not so positive: The WiFi is awful. Not a major problem but it would have been useful to have been told that beforehand. The house needs a bit of love - the flooring, in the main room particularly, is in need of updating and a comfortable sofa would have been wonderful. The sliding doors overlooking the patio don’t feel very secure. The drawers in living room have woodworm so it was impossible to get the games out of them. There is a baby swing in the garden which is a lovely idea but the seat is cracked and actually a health and safety hazard. There are various consoles, dvd players and televisions but very few link together and work. We had to attach the dvd player to the tv in the bedroom because the wires were incompatible with the tv downstairs. The house was very warm, which would be a huge bonus in winter but it would be really useful to provide instructions for the heating, just in case it is 22 degrees outside. (Thankfully Bill came to the rescue) Instructions for the oven would also be helpful. The non-stick pans were in poor condition and obviously the damaged coating is very unhealthy. The games room was a bonus but again needs a little attention. There were only two (proper) ping pong balls (the others didn’t bounce) and only one usable dart. There were lots of random items in the games room that feel like they’ve been abandoned and a pile of DVDs which, despite being an interesting selection, were almost impossible to play, even after we found a compatible tv and wires for the dvd player, because they were so scratched. There is a cattle grid at the entrance to the property which has sunk. Some vehicles would struggle to cope with that. We really enjoyed our stay but it could have been closer to perfect.

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• John - Verified booking

  Please refer to my stay, which you stated 'is important to us'.

  We arrived on Saturday 16th March 2024, tired and hungry. One of the first things we planned to do was to let family members we had arrived safely. There was no phone signal. The next morning we had to travel about one mile from the cottage to obtain a signal. Fortunately we were able to contact Chloe at Sykes at 10.49 who appreciated our situation particularly if there was an emergency and we were unable to leave the cottage. We are both in our 80s and my wife is partially disabled. Later I returned to the same location and phoned Sykes at 12.06. Chloe was on her lunch break, so Sue took my call. I returned to the cottage and left them to try to contact the owners who apparently lived locally. We tried to follow our plans for our holiday but felt very vulnerable all the time we were in the cottage. On Tuesday I picked up a phone message while away from the cottage. Chloe had tried to contact the owners by phone without success so had left an email. She said she would contact us if she had news. That's the last we heard apart from the usual automatic marketing messages which were totally inappropriate at the time. We left the cottage by mid afternoon on Tuesday 19th. We have heard nothing further from Sykes Cottages. We have heard nothing whatsoever from the owners, even although they allegedly live locally to Auchmithie. We have stayed in dozens of self catering cottages, caravans, lodges etc over the past 50 years. We lived in rural Angus for 30 years. We know what to expect. If we had no phone signal while living in Angus, we had a landline. Only once before have we been let down by a caravan owner and even then we were provided with a superb alternative because the site owner was only too happy to remove the caravan from his site.

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• Reg - Verified booking

  On arriving at Blue Sky Cottage, we were pleased to see the Welcome Pack as we were looking forward to a nice cup of tea after our long journey.

  On checking the milk, we noticed it was out of date by 5 months (exp. date 21.01.23). If we had used it, we could have ended up with a sore stomach or maybe worse. Bad points: Blinds in the sitting room on one side didn't work. The cottage was listed as having WiFi and free view TV. WiFi was extremely slow and kept dropping out and you could only get BBC. The screen on the TV was filthy. The sitting room and kitchen was so dark, lights were needed to be on during the day. Small kitchen bin lid was broken. Was asked to empty general waste wheelie bin that was absolutely full up and the bin itself was filthy. The toilet and shower room was very very small. The floor space = 1 1/2 telephone boxes. In the double bedroom, at the head of the double bed, 2ft 6 ins of the side was a cupboard that contained a boiler which fired up at regular intervals through the night and was quite noisy. Garden cushions were left out on the chairs covered in bird droppings which we wiped clean and left the cushions inside by the patio doors when we left. We have a little dog. The garden was overgrown and it was difficult to pick up after our dog. The cottage would benefit from a good clean inside and out. The good points. The cottage's location was excellent with plenty of places to visit. The furniture was of good quality and very substantial. The bed and the settee were really comfortable. Enjoyed sitting out on the decking listening to the birds. Just a shame, the cottage was missing a little TLC.

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• Michaela - Verified booking

  We have visited the Brae of Airlie farmhouse before and absolutely loved it.

  We said we'd go back and it took 3 years but we returned. It was just as lovely as we had remembered it. There were two of us and two dogs so the facilities were more than adequate for us, however it's worth noting that there is only one shower so if large groups stay, sharing would be required. The house and garden is perfect and if the owners ever wanted to sell we'd upsticks in a heartbeat! The location of the house is fantastic, within a 40 minute drive of many interesting places including Arbroath, the Cairngorms, Glamis Castle and Queens View to name just a few. Also not to be missed is the 'Wee Bear Cafe', a dog friendly cafe right near the farmhouse and a lovely place to stop for a well earned coffee and piece of cake after a walk around the reservoir. We visited in Autumn this time and were able to pick apples from the many trees in the garden. We observed deer in the field beyond and geese flying overhead as well as pheasants in the garden - such a treat. The house is in need of new glazed doors as the seals appear to have blown which affected the view from the window but still perfectly adequate. The wood burning stoves are wonderful as are the many books to read of all different genres. Overall, 10/10 in our opinion. We will definitely return, hopefully with our family.

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