We spent four nights in October in Glaisdale, north Yorkshire in a cottage booked using Tesco vouchers through “Cottages.com” – very good value indeed! The cottage was one of several available to rent as holiday homes at a farm called Nab End. The farm was located at the end of Glaisdale, a few miles from the village and reached by some very narrow, twisting roads! It was certainly a very beautiful and peaceful setting, surrounded by farmland at the bottom of the dale and the heather and bracken-clad hills all around. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great during our stay, so we weren’t able to enjoy the truly breathtaking scenery at its best! The cottage itself was clean and comfortable with all the right equipment provided. Perhaps we were a little spoilt, as we had recently stayed in a much newer and recently refurbished cottage in Scotland, so the furniture and decor in this cottage didn’t quite match up to the same standard, however it was perfectly adequate for a pleasant, comfortable stay. The gardens surrounding the cottages were lovely and I enjoyed watching the many different birds that visited the garden whilst we were there. The one thing which was lacking in this cottage was the provision of any sort of “welcome pack”. Unlike in our Scottish cottage, no initial supplies were provided and as we had expected that there would be at least a few basic supplies in the cottage, such as tea, coffee etc. for our first night, we hadn’t brought anything with us and were planning to visit the local shops the following morning. So I’m afraid we had to do without on that first evening and would therefore suggest that anyone booking this type of cottage holiday should clarify whether or not a “welcome pack” of supplies will be included before travelling. Apart from this, we did enjoy our few days in the cottage and found the owners to be friendly and helpful. There is so much to do and see in north Yorkshire and we revisited many of our favourite spots, including Whitby, Saltburn, Runswick Bay and Redcar. We also had a very interesting visit to the National Trust property of Ormesby Hall and we enjoyed an excellent meal at “The Board” – a pub in Lealholm – thoroughly recommended!
