Dog Friendly Cottages In Western Isles

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Andrew - Verified booking

  I stayed at this property between the 8th of March and the 15th of March and I booked it because I had stayed at Otter Cottage approximately 200 yards along the road recently in January.

  On the face of it this is a modern property which certainly looks the part but I had a nightmare week there. On arrival no satellite signal so could not use the TV, the basement TV also had no signal but access to iPlayer etc, I could not use this as my wife is disabled and on a feeding pump and could not use the stairs, when I booked I made sure everything that I needed was on the one level, after much faffing about with the owner and the housekeeper the following day they arranged for a satellite repair guy to attend from Stornaway on the Monday to check the satellite position as they stated that there had been storms and had knocked out a lot of other satellites, two guys turned up in a private car without a ladder and new they couldn’t reach it , came into house and checked the connections and could find nothing amiss, and stated it was a subscription issue, by this time I’m none too pleased so they went away in the huff, spoke to housekeeper Elly who said that she would get onto Sky and get sorted, came back to me and said spent hours onto Sky and it would not be up and running now till the following Thursday ( now I’ve been a Sky customer for over 25 years and never been in situation where it would take more than a few hours to upgrade or install a package ). because the Tv in the lounge was Sky Glass then you could not use it even as an app , was offered a smaller tv by Elly on the Tuesday to get me at least BBC iPlayer but by this time I was not prepared to stay in and deal with it so told her to forget it, now guess what? by the Friday when I left there was still no picture ( took a photo as proof ), next door neighbour who was a nurse noticed my wife had a nasal tube and new she was on a feeding pump as this was now Wednesday she asked if we knew the power was going down in area the next day Thursday, I told her no I was not given any information about this, she said that everyone had three months notice of this as a few properties ( new builds ) up the coast were all being connected to the electricity grid and power could be out all day and possibly into the Friday. The house itself is cold, although you can allegedly up the thermostat to increase the temperature but the owner 600 miles away can override it, the ceiling is the height of a double decker bus so any heat goes straight up about 16 feet, the owner said to use the display fireplace to boost the heat but as I explained to him it is a fan heater which aims the heat into a glass fish tank type display and cuts itself out constantly, so my wife is sitting with a hot water bottle in a property that I had paid a premium price for. The lounge had no small tables to put a drink on so I had to go upstairs and take two bedside cabinets down to use as tables ( Elly came with two small tables on the Sunday or Monday ) the lounge has large windows but no blinds or curtains so you are sitting there at night and feel like a goldfish, god knows what it would be like in the summer. There is a distinct lack of places to hang things, no key hooks , no towel hooks in bathroom, you are encouraged to use the side door into the utility but the door is either warped or badly fitted , no trays to put wet boots or hangers for jackets, no shower caddy, no space/shelving at bathroom sink to hold toiletries, had to store at windowsill, no scissors no torches, had to buy scissors in Tarbert , supposed to be dog friendly but large glass coffee table by lounge window with sharp corners at dog eye height ( and the owner is a vet ) place is surrounded by sheep which is not ideal if you have a dog as the new fence down the right especially has spaces at the bottom where a dog can escape. Supposed to be instructions in a black box on how to use the hob but found none ,had to google it. On reading the house guide it gives the owners application to Harris council to use the property as a rental BUT it clearly states that due to the way water is supplied/stored for use at this property and is susceptible to legionella then the property is NOT to be rented to people who may be vulnerable and the owner has clearly ticked the box to say that he complies with this regulation. So maybe he ( a medical professional ) can explain how my wife who has a suppressed immune system managed to stay here and was potentially put at risk, and why this is not clearly advised on SYKES SITE. So to conclude would I recommend this property Would you like to phone a friend?

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• Keeley - Verified booking

  Great place to stay and explore the island.

  Good sized property with good amenities. Secure gated garden ideal for letting the dog roam and plenty of off road parking. Excellent views of the local hillsides and moorland and only a short walk to the shore at Newton Ferry. Plenty of wildlife to see in the air, in the water and on land. Good communications with the owners, Donald & Caroline. Very quiet and peaceful, combined with a comfortable bed made for repeated great nights sleeping, essential when recovering from long walks. Kitchen was fully equipped and a good size so food prep was easy. Log burner got the lounge toasty within 20 mins or so. Washer & Drier along with washing line perfect for getting gear cleaned ready for another adventure. Shower room was good size and water pressure great for a rejuvenating freshen up. Could easily recommend and would return. Thank You.

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• Gwenda Matthews - Verified booking

  We loved the house, which was very well appointed and comfortable, with the best library of books and maps for the local area which we have ever seen in 50 years of holidaymaking!

  However, we do have a few suggestions for improvement - 1. The lighting in the lounge was very poor for reading purposes ( you can tell we love books!). Perhaps the inclusion of a specific reading lamp might be good. 2. The kitchen knives in the block are very blunt - Knife sharpener needed maybe? 3. We had some very fine weather and it would have been good to sit in the garden in a freestanding" chair at the end of the day, rather than just at the fixed bench attached to a table. 4. Our dog managed to go through the bars of the gate. ( It was ok as we were there). However, perhaps some chicken wire across the bottom two gaps on the gateway might make it more secure for dogs. Despite the above, we still had a wonderful time, and would thoroughly reccommend! Thankyou Gwenda

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• Andrea - Verified booking

  We spent two weeks here and loved it.

  Clean, comfortable and great views. The first big draw is the huge windows. You can sit and look south across the sea to Barra, or you can see west (spectacular sunsets), and north to the hills. It’s just a couple of minutes’ walk to the beach. We saw short eared owls several times from the house, and there is a lot of bird life on the small lochs nearby. The house was spotlessly clean and had a good kitchen with panoramic views. The wifi was excellent - we had no problem watching Netflix on our laptop. The South Uist beaches are stunning and go on for miles, and we had two excellent otter encounters. We visited Eriskay, Barra, Vatersay and finally made it to St Kilda! It was wonderful to have this house to come back to and we felt totally relaxed here.

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• Sarah - Verified booking

  Lovely warm, comfortable cottage in a beautiful setting, although to say it has views of the coast is stretching things a bit.

  Lots of wildlife, regularly saw deer from the windows, heard cuckoo at all hours! and many other birds from the garden. Well equipped. Great to have good drying facilities, and excellent collection of books of local interest. It isn't clear from the details unless you look very hard at the photos that there are 2 double beds (not just 2 double bedrooms as in the listing), in the end it didn't matter as our 4th person couldn't come but that needs to be clearer. Unfortunately items in the kitchen had not been left clean by previous guests and that had not been picked up by the cleaners. A bit of maintenance required: some lights in sitting room didn't work and back door is pretty stiff.

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