Printable property details
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Pancrasweek, near Bude, Devon
EX22 7JX
Barn Cottage
- Style
- Red-brick barn, Scandinavian style
- Setting
- North Devon farmland, Cornish coastline
A lovingly converted barn in North Devon with a reverse layout: the sun-flooded open-plan living space upstairs overlooks a leafy, grassy meadow, below are two pretty bedrooms and a bathroom. It’s a high-spec hit of low-key contemporary cool in a simple, relaxed set up, ten minutes from Bude on the coast of Cornwall.
In the know
House style
100-year-old brick-constructed barn with an open-plan reverse living place, the simple furnishings are stylish with Scandinavian influences.
Grounds
A large private deck overlooks tree-lined fields, all set within this 6.5-acre smallholding.
Sleeps
4 (and a baby).
Ideal for
An outdoor-loving family with two children, young couples playing house for the first time, surfers, walkers and anyone who enjoys the great outdoors.
Rates
£500–£950 a week; long weekends available, except from early July until the end of August.
Minimum hire
Weekends; except in summer when it is a week. Changeover is usually Fridays.
Also
No smoking, and no pets allowed.
Eating & drinking
On arrival, there is a hamper which includes a loaf of organic bread, local bacon and sausages, Jersey milk, filter coffee and tea bags. You can also pre-order a home-cooked pre-prepared meal such as a delicious creamy fish pie ready to pop in the oven.
Children
All the hardware such as high chair, cot, steriliser and even a stairgate or a car seat available. Kids’ toys, games and books on tap too if you want them. There are plenty of grounds right on your lap for them to explore, but coast lovers are a short drive from surfing, rockpooling and sand-castle building. Or hire a bike and hit the Camel or Tarka trails.
Music
In the lounge: a small flatscreen TV with freeview and a DVD player, Roberts digital radio, iPod dock.
Provided
Toiletries for the bath and shower. Wood for the fire. Board games and books. For children: games, high chairs, cot and a stairgate if needed.
Packing tips
Beachwear and Wellington boots. Soft-soled slippers or thick socks, so you can leave muddy shoes on the rack and not cause a racket in the living room.
Eco policy
Eco warriors can stay with a clean conscience: hot water and heating is powered by a ground-source heat pump; water is from a borehole; windows are triple-glazed. Traditional building methods used wherever practical such as lime pointing.
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Interior
Bedrooms
Both bedrooms are downstairs and separated by a cute shared bathroom. One has a double bed (not best suited for anyone over 6’3”) and the other a twin, with plenty of room for a cot. There is shared hanging space in the hallway.
Kitchen The open-plan living space is ideal for a family who want to spend time together throughout, particularly during meal preparation. There’s an electric cooker and oven, a washing machine, a microwave and most of the pots, pans and utensils you would need for basic cooking requirements.
Living room There is a wood-burning stove, which heats the whole of the top-floor quick-smart and it looks mighty pretty; two sofas guarantee maximum relaxation time.
Dining room A table and four chairs occupy the open space between the kitchen and sitting room area, which is lined by a bookcase stocked with lots of readable novels and board games.
Other
Outdoor
Gardens Barn Cottage has its own large private deck overlooking tree-lined fields, set within a sprawling smallholding and sandwiched between nature reserves. The wooden terrace is off the kitchen and living room and faces east so it’s steeped in sunlight all morning. Stray beyond that and you'll find a fruit-festooned orchard and flower-filled meadows. The main farmhouse is next door but they won't mind you inspecting their vegetable patch or playing hide and seek in the fields beyond. Nature lovers should keep an eye or ear out for rabbits, foxes, buzzards and woodpeckers among the abundance of wildlife.
Parking There is space outside on the driveway for a couple of cars.
check availability
To check availability and book a vacation rental property please call the Smith travel team on 1 866 610 3867. We guarantee best available rates on all vacation rental properties.
Activities
Best beaches
Find out when low tide is and head to the National Trust-owned beach, Northcott Mouth, and let little ones explore the rock pools and admire the surfers making the most of the excellent breakers. Make sure you seek out Margaret for a cuppa and cake, too; see cafés, below. Then burn off the calories with a quick hike to the top of the cliff and a lungful of that sea air.
Best walks
There is no shortage of coast or countryside crying out for rambling around here. You’ll find a list of some of the loveliest places to go at the cottage, but our favourites include Duckpool which has a delightful, sandy beach begging for you to while away lazy afternoons on it. Or if you’ve got a pushchair or fancy an easier terrain to trot along, park up in Bude, then start on foot at the canal for an easy 20-minute amble. (If you’re a kite flyer, you couldn’t find a better spot than here.) Hug the coastal path past the Hartland Hotel ending up at Summerleaze, where you’ll find that the café there does a decent coffee.
Activities
Join the joggers, dog-walkers and bird-watchers wending their way through some of Cornwall’s most camera-worthy scenery by cycling along the Camel Trail. It’s an old railway track, so you’re guaranteed a relatively non-bumpy ride, perfect for kids and active adults alike. The route stretches from Wadebridge to Padstow, with glimpses of the River Camel glimmering away, cooling you down as you sally forth. After all this exertion, you’ll more than deserve a languid lunch at Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant (www.rickstein.com). The Camel Trail, Wadebridge Cornwall PL27 7AL. Alternatively, make like Henry Williamson’s literary hero, Tarka the Otter and take the Tarka Trail (www.devon.gov.uk/tarkatrail.htm). This 32-mile foray along the old railways of North Devon is an exhilarating way to experience the breathtaking countryside. Book your wheeled-steed through Bridge Bike Hire (+44 (0)1208 813050; www.bridgebikehire.co.uk) or Padstow Cycle Hire (+44 (0)1841 533533; www.padstowcyclehire.com).
Smith tip
A variety of native wildflower species have been planted across the neighbouring meadows, so we say: ditch the Wii and get flower-pressing. Too-cool-for-school kids refusing to partake in that beloved Victorian childhood pastime? You could always beg a go on the trampoline.
Eating, drinking and dancing
Cafés
Margaret's Rustic Tea Room
Who would think a caravan could be capable of the cream teas that the affable Margaret serves up at an idyllic spot behind Northcott Mouth? Park up, and then follow the gravely drive inland where you’ll spot her little green camper-cum-kitchen and cute seats and tables dotted about on the grass across a stream. The van has been there since the Forties, when Margaret's mum run her tea room on the very same spot.
Northcott Mouth, near Bude, Cornwall
Pubs
The Bush Inn
+44 (0)1288 331242
Formerly the drinking den of smugglers, shipwrecked sailors and their buxom wenches, the Bush Inn is a beautiful 13th-century pub with hearty food, homely rustic charm and some highly gluggable ales. The location is postcard-perfect; perched in a dramatic and rugged stretch of the North Cornish coast, surrounded by Tidna Valley’s emerald rolling hills and across to the Atlantic Ocean. There’s a huge wooden climbing frame suitable for older children with energy to burn. In the winter, the log fire crackles and sparks in the tiny traditional inn, providing warmth and comfort to match that delivered by the enticing edibles – popular choices include red wine and blue cheese risotto, venison stew and Cornish sausage and mash with lashings of onion gravy. Come summer time, sit out at picnic benches on that grassy hill with a cold beer and enjoy some fresh fish-feasting, watching your little ‘uns playing in the garden.
Morwenstow, Cornwall, EX23 9SR
Old Smithy Inn
+44 (0)1288 331305
Just a mile from the sea and a stone’s throw from the Cornish border sits the Old Smithy Inn. Its menu champions local produce; mainly succulent seafood pilfered from the nearby waters. There are fishy starters like pan fried scallops with brandy cream or Bideford bay squid with chorizo, along with mains to match: Bude monkfish with dry cured ham, julienne veg and Pernod cream with new potatoes or grilled Welcombe half lobster with garlic cream and parmesan sauce.
Welcombe, Bideford, Devon, EX39 6HG
Restaurants
The Seafood Restaurant
+44 (0)1841 532700
No seafood lover worth their salt would miss a trip to a Rick Stein’s eatery, so be sure to feast on shellfish at his famous Seafood Restaurant while you’re here. The culinary king has three other Cornwall outposts; St Petroc's Bistro, Rick Stein's Café and Stein’s Fish & Chips, along with a pub in St Merryn called The Cornish Arms. To impress the folks back home, treat each other to a course at the chef’s cookery school. www.rickstein.com
Riverside, Padstow, Cornwall, PL28 8BY
check availability
To check availability and book a vacation rental property please call the Smith travel team on 1 866 610 3867. We guarantee best available rates on all vacation rental properties.
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Housekeeping
Ordinarily this is weekly, but a daily clean can be arranged for a nominal fee.
check availability
To check availability and book a vacation rental property please call the Smith travel team on 1 866 610 3867. We guarantee best available rates on all vacation rental properties.
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Planes Barn Cottage is just over an hour from Newquay International, Cornwall’s main airport, which operates regular flights from Stansted with Ryanair, Gatwick with British Airways and Manchester with BMI Baby. Cornwall also has its own airline, Air Southwest, which flies from Bristol, Manchester and Dublin, among others, from around £35 each way (www.newquay-airport.co.uk).
It is as though an interiors stylist has sneaked in to get Barn Cottage just-so in preparation for our arrival
Review
At the end of a winding driveway through rolling fields, flanked by high, green banks, the sight of a trampoline is the first indication this isn’t a conventional farm. Our hosts, Conrad and Karen, wander out of their slickly renovated farmhouse and welcome us warmly to the hip guest hideaway they’ve created next door.
A lovingly converted barn with a reverse layout, the sun-flooded upstairs overlooks a leafy, grassy meadow, with two pretty bedrooms and Nantucket-esque bathroom below. Top to bottom, it’s a high-spec hit of low-key contemporary cool in a simple, relaxed set up. Ready for our visit, it is as though an interiors stylist has sneaked in to give Barn Cottage a just-so preparation.
Fit for a photoshoot, a bundle of coloured pencils are lovingly tied with string, poised next to a colouring-in book more Taschen than toddler-worthy. A fresh loaf of organic bread, free range eggs, sausages and bacon appear as though from the pages of a magazine, wrapped stylishly in brown paper, perfecting the tableau of country-cottage idyll. Most soothing of all is the sight of a homemade fish pie ready for us to pop into the oven. Having braved the M4/M5 route from London on a Friday, it’s the foodie equivalent of a shoulder rub, saving us from having to think about how and what to rustle up for supper.
By 9pm we are happy to follow close on the heels of our two-year-old (by now snoring in a cot set up in her own room), and we sneak off to bed ourselves. Framed pictures of birds on the walls, and a huge vase of fresh and wildflowers whet our appetite for the flora and fauna we’ll be among the next day.
A chirruping dawn chorus is a suitable wake-up call, reminding us we are a world away from traffic or the rattle of neighbours through terraced-house walls.The temptation is to stay put and laze around but as Barn Cottage is a short drive from so much of what makes this swathe of the south-west so special, instead we draw up a checklist for our action-packed two days.
Ten minutes from the coast we sample traditional Cornish bucket-and-spade resort, Bude, then make for the more rugged beaches just north of it, beloved by surfers and locals alike. It is amazing how of often this north Devon/Cornwall patch falls under the tourist radar, and as we wander into postcard-perfect pockets that feel like our very own – even on a busy bank holiday weekend.
check availability
To check availability and book a vacation rental property please call the Smith travel team on 1 866 610 3867. We guarantee best available rates on all vacation rental properties.
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