A Lakeland retreat at Croft House with Sally’s Cottages

At the start of October I spent the weekend in the Cumbria with eight other bloggers. We were invited to stay in Croft House near Loweswater by Sally’s Cottages. Croft House is just one of hundreds of self-catering cottages in the Lake District available to rent through Sally’s Cottages. 

A walk in the woods at Loweswater

Living just over an hour from the Lakes means it is somewhere I have spent a lot of time. We have holidayed in the Lake District with the boys quite a few times too. We’ve actually stayed with Sally’s Cottages before – most recently when we spent October half term near Penrith last year. We’ve always been really pleased with the cottages we’ve stayed in. Croft House is much bigger than the other cottages though so I was interested to see what it was like.

Croft House Loweswater from Sally's Cottages

Croft House is in the village of Lamplugh, three miles from the lake of Loweswater. It is just over 10 minutes drive south of Cockermouth and around half an hour from Keswick. It took me about two and a half hours to get there from our house near Preston. As I didn’t leave home until after the school run I was the last of our group to arrive. The directions provided by Sally’s Cottages were easy to follow and I had no problems finding the house. Like the other properties we’ve stayed in the keys are found in a key safe outside the door so you can let yourself in when you arrive.

Croft House

Croft House is perfect for a large group stay

Croft House sleeps 12 people in 6 bedrooms so there was plenty of room for the nine of us bloggers. The property is a barn conversion so is upside down. Four of the bedrooms, a bathroom (with a wonderful roll top bath) and toilet are on the ground floor. Then a further two bedrooms (one with an ensuite), bathroom, kitchen, and the living and dining room are on the top floor.

My double room at Croft House

I was lucky enough to bag one of the double bedrooms to myself. I’m sure my warning the others about my snoring had nothing to do with it! The room was one of the smaller ones but it had a comfortable bed which is super important for me. There’s nothing worse than an uncomfortable bed on holiday. The room also had its own washbasin which was handy, as do several of the other bedrooms.

The living room and dining area at Croft House

The living space was ideal for our large group. There were plenty of comfy sofas for us all to sit on. We spent both evenings that we were there playing games around the coffee table. The large dining table at the far end of the living space was great too. It would easily seat 12 if the house was fully occupied and there was lots of room for the Mexican feast that Laura and Grace cooked for us on Friday evening, and for a full English breakfast on Sunday morning.

Speaking of cooking – the kitchen is quite small for a property of this size but it has everything you need. There is a large fridge freezer, plus another under counter fridge. There’s also a large range cooker so cooking for large numbers shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Lovely stream through the grounds at Croft House near Lamplugh

Outside Croft House there was plenty of parking space for the five cars we had with us. There are also some lovely grounds with a little stream running through. There’s a massive conker tree (I brought home a good haul for the boys). Plus there is outdoor seating which would be perfect if you were visiting when the weather is a bit warmer! Lauren and I had fun exploring on Saturday morning and even found a secret garden over the stream.

Enjoying the great outdoors at Croft House

A walk round Loweswater

A wonderful Lakeland Blogger's retreat thanks to Sally's Cottages

You can never be short of things to do in the Lake District. But as we were all there for a relaxing weekend we didn’t stretch ourselves too much on Saturday! We had a lovely walk through the woods alongside nearby Loweswater. 

A peaceful walk by the lake with friends

The sun even made an appearance for us as we walked back towards the gorgeous Kirkstile Inn where we had parked our cars. I would definitely recommend a visit to this traditional Lakeland pub if you are in the area. I love pubs like this one, with a roaring fire, welcoming staff and a great menu too.

A beautiful walk round Loweswater in the Lake District

On Saturday night we went out for a meal in Cockermouth. My husband actually grew up in Cockermouth, and we had visited on our mini-moon after wedding so I do know the town a little bit. We were lucky enough to have local knowledge from Steph who lives nearby though and she recommended Shills where we enjoyed a great tapas meal before heading back to the house for a few cheeky gins and a rather revealing game of Never Have I Ever!

Bloggers ready for a night out at Croft House

After breakfast on Sunday it was time for most of us to head home. Sally’s Cottages offers either full week, midweek (Monday- Friday), or weekend (Friday – Monday) breaks so we actually had the house until Monday morning. Lauren, Mel and Laura were staying until Monday and as I didn’t have too far to travel home (and an afternoon tea to go to at 3 pm) I had a lovely few hours just relaxing and chatting before I hit the road.

Enjoying the Lake District autumn sun

Thank you for a wonderful weekend

I had such a wonderful weekend in the Lake District. Us bloggers are a strange bunch sometimes and it was so lovely to spend some time with people who really get it! I’ve been friends with some of these ladies for nearly five years now (and some I’ve only met more recently) and we chat online a lot, but we normally only get to see each other for a few hours here and there at blogging events and conferences so it was brilliant to have the opportunity just to sit around and chat.

Before I wrap this post up I just want to say a big thank you to Donna for organising the weekend, and to Rosie, Lisa and all the other ladies that I’ve already mentioned for making it such a fabulous weekend, and of course to Sally’s Cottages for inviting us to stay in Croft House in one of my most favourite parts of the country. And an extra thank you to Donna,  Mel and Lauren for letting me use some of their photographs in this post.

I’m sure it won’t be too long before I’m back in the Lakes for another holiday with Barry and the boys – in fact I’ve already been browsing the Sally’s Cottages website to see where we’re going to go next!

 

**Disclosure: I was invited to stay at Croft House free of charge in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.

 

 

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