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"We had a lovely week at Blue Skies cottage 5th - 12th October."
Very cosy welcoming little cottage had everything we needed for our stay, thank you for a generous welcome pack which was very much enjoyed. Our dog Buddy loved the cottage too, nice costal walks and a very handy playing field to run about in.
The location is great for walks and for touring the surrounding area.
This is not a complaint but just so that it does not detract from the property, the areas of dampness in the king bedroom, the bed side lights in the same room and the flickering dimmer light in the family bedroom all need addressed as previously mentioned. This did not impact our holiday in any way as we had a great time and would not hesitate to recommend Blue Skies. Thank Graham and Wendy for a very comfortable stay.
Reviewed by Jennifer5.0★Oct 2024
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"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.
Reviewed by Terry3.1★Sep 2024
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"Owners should be commended for leaving a wee tray of goodies!"
Highly delighted with everything. Even the dog enjoyed being able to wander in and out.
Aww that's fabulous! Thanks so much for your kind words and the lovely note you left us :) We are so happy you all had a brilliant stay at Blue Skies! Graham & Wendy
Property Owner
Reviewed by Duncan5.0★Sep 2024
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"Good moments in blue skies near the beautiful cliffs of Arbroath."
Thanks for leaving a review, we are so glad you enjoyed exploring Auchmithie and beyond! Graham & Wendy
Property Owner
Reviewed by Cédric4.7★Aug 2024
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"Had a lovely week stay in blue skies cottage."
Very well equipped, comfortable beds, plenty of room no complaints whatsoever. There is a lovely walk down to the beach, which is a stone beach but a great place for the kids if they like to look for crabs and sea creatures. I would stay there again.
Thanks for your lovely feedback, it's great to hear you all had a wonderful time. The beach is so beautiful and a great place to make family memories to treasure forever. We would love to welcome you back to Blue Skies in the future. Graham & Wendy
Property Owner
Reviewed by Dianne5.0★Jul 2024
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"Beautiful cottage,would definitely recommend it to anyone."
Will be booking again in the future.
Thank you so much! We appreciate your kind words and glad you loved Blue Skies. Wendy & Graham
Property Owner
Reviewed by R5.0★Jul 2024
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"The cottage is well equipped and a lovely base for exploring the surrounding areas."
Nice and quiet and really enjoyed our stay, only have one complaint and that's there are no coat hooks, had to hang our coats on doors and the dining table chairs, not ideal when they are wet!
I will say the bunny
Thanks so much for taking the time to leave us a review. We are glad you enjoyed your stay and managed to do lots of exploring during your visit. We will totally get some coat hooks sorted out! Thanks for the recommendation, we are always looking to make improvements to the cottage and guest experience. Wendy & Graham
Property Owner
Reviewed by Sarah5.0★Jul 2024
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"The cottage is in a beautiful location with a lovely garden."
The only things I would point out which were an issue for us were a) the bathroom was a long way from the bedrooms b) my husband stumbled badly over the large step down from the kitchen to the lounge on first entering the property as he didn't realise it was there and c) the shower has quite a step up to use. Small issues, otherwise we had a lovely stay.
Thanks for taking the time to leave us a review and feedback your experience of Blue Skies. We take on all guest feedback and will try and highlight the step to the living room more, the other two points unfortunately there's not much we can do due to layout and logistics of the cottage. Glad you had a lovely stay, Graham & Wendy
Property Owner
Reviewed by Wynne5.0★Jun 2024
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"The only thing we can comment on is the front bedroom seems to have a damp problem occurring in front bedroom."
This may be due to a blocked gutter.
Thanks for highlighting this, we will investigate and resolve. Wendy and Graham
Property Owner
Reviewed by Keith5.0★Jun 2024
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"Best Fire Safety I've seen and lights handy if you had to get up during the night."
Useful info in notes too. Was a nice wee break.
Thanks very much, we pride ourselves in keeping our guests safe during their stay with us. Glad you had a nice stay. Graham & Wendy
Property Owner
Reviewed by David5.0★Jun 2024
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"A lovely cottage with excellent facilities and lots of space."
Everything you need for a relaxing week away..Welcome basket on arrival was great. Easy to travel the area from the cottage and the views from the cliff walk are awesome. Best of all the walk down to the beautiful pebble beach every morning. Highly recommend for a relaxing break away. My dog loved her stay there.
Great to hear you and your dog had a fab stay at Blue Skies, it's the perfect place to retreat and relax. Graham & Wendy
Property Owner
Reviewed by Tracy5.0★May 2024
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"We really loved your spotlessly clean, comfortable cottage and it was so nice to have a garden to sit and relax in after our days out exploring and even the the weather was kind to us!"
The birdsong was tremendous!
So many places nearby to explore and we especially loved "The Den" walk. The wild flowers were tremendous, carpets of bluebells, celandine and violets, gorgeous! We especially enjoyed the walk over Seaton Cliffs. So much to do in the area.
We arrived on 27 April and when we got home booked another two weeks as we loved rhe house and area so much!
Thank you for a memorable holiday.
John&Rose
Reviewed by John5.0★Apr 2024
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"Ssshhh this is the best cottage, we loved it and want to move in!"
. Lovely holiday, relaxed ++, everything that you could possibly want for a wonderful holiday. Sykes slow to respond yet when they did respond and called Graham the owner he fixed the heating immediately remotely and all lovely and cosy. Lovely sitting and watching life through the French windows from the reclining sofa and the beds so comfortable. Kitchen well stocked and thank you so much for the nutritional welcome. A real treat to be so near the bus stop into town for the Smokie run. Arbroath friendly, loads to do, clifftop walk amazing, looked after well in Café Barista in town. Thank you so much Graham , Eleri, Andrew and family xx
Reviewed by Eleri5.0★Mar 2024
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"Lovely cottage clean and tidy just as said in brochure if you want a nice quiet holiday close to see and easy base for visiting Angus and afar Blue Skies is ideal."
Reviewed by Brian4.7★Mar 2024
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"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.
I am very sorry to hear that you had this difficulty with your phone signal whilst staying at Blue Skies Cottage. Whilst we have never had a problem with our own phone signal, other networks may be different. We do provide fibre broadband for all of our guests to use.
Sadly we do not live locally - sorry if you were led to believe this. We do know people locally who can help, but I was not aware of your issue until it appeared within the feedback.
Once again, many apologies that your phone signal caused a problem. I really hope you enjoyed other elements of your stay. Best wishes for the future.
Property Owner
Reviewed by John3.4★Mar 2024
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"Lovely cottage and well maintained."
Felt very comfortable staying there. The cottage had everything you need and a lot of attention was paid to this. Would highly recommend. Only one small issue, which wasn’t a problem for me, but you had to walk through the house from the bedrooms to get to the shower/toilet area.
Reviewed by Graham5.0★Dec 2023
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"We very much enjoyed our stay at Blue Skies."
The cottage was cosy and comfortable, and had everything we needed (except a teapot but that wasn't a huge problem!). The fact that we were able to store our bikes in the shed was a big consideration for us, as we'd travelled by train and bike, and used our bikes for transport while we were there. Auchmithie is a fine spot, with good opportunities to walk, cycle and sightsee. Our stay even coincided with an event by the Scottish Geology Trust, which was fascinating.
We are smiling so much after reading your review! Glad you had a wonderful stay at Blue Skies, your adventures sound amazing too. The teapot has been added to our shopping list! Thanks for your kind words.
Property Owner
Reviewed by Catherine5.0★Sep 2023
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"Had a great holiday, cottage gave all the comforts I could wish for,."
Thank you
That's fantastic to hear, glad you had a wonderful holiday. Thanks for taking the time to leave us feedback.
Property Owner
Reviewed by Colleen5.0★Sep 2023
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"Nice cottage, good location comfortable good Welcombe pack
Only negative ..."
Nice cottage, good location comfortable good Welcombe pack
Only negative distance to bathroom in the night and step down from kitchen to lounge
Thanks for leaving us a review, we're glad you enjoyed your stay.
Property Owner
Reviewed by Frank3.8★Sep 2023
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"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.
Reviewed by Reg2.5★Jun 2023
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"Generally we found the cottage very comfortable indeed."
The heating was extremely efficient (thankfully!). I did find the living room rather dark and was unable to open the vertical blinds fully, and the more comfortable sofa was in the darkest corner of the room. I seem to be unusual in that I loathe leather upholstery (and vertical blinds) in any form! So many homes seem to have them now.
All fixtures and fittings seem to be in very good order. The only thing we missed was egg cups.
Reviewed by Fiona4.1★Apr 2023
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"Just a tiny issue: the drawers in the bedrooms were not all clean inside."
Also in one bedroom, there was a broken drawer. Otherwise, a great place to stay - we would love to live there! Beautifully situated with plenty of walking on the beach close by. Definitely recommended!
Reviewed by Evelyn4.7★Mar 2023
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"We had a good time."
It is very small village .quite and beautiful.
A good rest place.
We're glad you enjoyed your stay at Blue Skies and found time to rest and relax.
Property Owner
Reviewed by Joshy4.4★Oct 2022
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"Total lack of mobile signal within the property but the broadband worked well."
Thanks for your feedback, with Auchmithie being a coastal village connectivity is tricky but we're glad you found our internet brilliant in the cottage.
Property Owner
Reviewed by Robert5.0★Aug 2022
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"Cottage was great."
Loved our wee stay there. Would highly recommend it and would definitely stay again
Reviewed by John5.0★Aug 2022
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"What a delightful cottage."
Very comfortable. Everything you need is there, and the welcome pack was a nice touch. The cottage is larger than it looks. Loads of room. Nice garden. Auchmithie is a very small village close to Arbroath. A visit to Lunan bay is a must. Fabulous beach. We had a fabulous chill out.
Reviewed by Rosemary5.0★Jul 2022
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"Very well appointed, comfortable accommodation, with great attention to detail e."
G. spare toiletries; cleaning materials and a lovely welcome tray.
Really comfy beds and plenty of extra blankets etc.
My grand daughter loved your shower (adults did, too)
Enclosed garden was ideal for our one eyed rescue toy poodle.
We decided to turn the dials for the central heating/hot water off, before we went to sleep in the bedroom which had the boiler system, having read a review that it was noisy. Easy fix IMHO.
These are minor but suggest detailing which refuse bin is required to be put out on what particular Wednesday and maybe have some information leaflets to hand for exploring surrounding area.
All in all a lovely cottage.
Reviewed by Elaine5.0★Jun 2022
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"Had a lovely stay weather was with us."
Cottage was lovely and the Area outstanding only minor gripe could do with more comfortable seating in lounge and the Outside.
Reviewed by L Inda4.1★Jun 2022
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"Property was lovely, we really felt it was home from home."
We did have a problem locking the back door, the lock is loose. The shower is small, but as we are petite people we managed ok. The welcome pack was lovely, and very useful as we had not brought any milk. It would be useful to show that there is no shop in the village. We were a little anxious as we had never rented before, nor taken a dog on holiday, but everything was amazing, and looking to come again in the future.
Reviewed by Gina4.7★Jun 2022
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"It would have been good to mention the DVD player and to display ,on the house instructions , the WiFi code for the house."
Comfortable cottage very well- situated. Lovely garden to sit out in and good views from the cottage . Very nice Welcome pack too . Really enjoyed our stay.
Reviewed by Rose Mary4.4★Apr 2022
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"A lovely bright and friendly cottage, ideal for a break from everything."
Reviewed by William David5.0★Mar 2022
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"Provided a perfect base for golfers."
Warm cottage with 2 spacious bedrooms.
WIFI, large TV, kitchen, lounge and bathroom all met our needs.
The off street parking was immediately in front of the front door.
Gaining access was a simple process.
Reviewed by Garry5.0★Oct 2021
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"The cottage as only adequate and as such expensive for what it was."
to be specific:
the toilet and shower room as extremely small and the shower cubicle particularly cramped.
the only toilet was a long way through the house from the bedrooms.
there was a combi boiler in one corner of one of the bedrooms and this fired up not only when hot water was requited but at odd times during rthe night as well.
the chairs at the dining table were the wrong height for the table being too low and cushions were needed. we are of average to tall height.
the lounge chairs were uncomfortable and the furnishings generally in the property has the feel of being a random section of used 'hand me downs' from other properties.
the main bedroom had bare floor boards with only small mats
it was difficult to find the password for the wifi - it would have been helpful to print it on the general instructions.
also the hot water control on the boiler had been turned down and there were no instructions on how to address this - one had to use one's initiative!
Reviewed by Robert3.1★Sep 2021
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"We had an amazing holiday!"
! All the little touches were amazing! From the welcome basket to the full wood shed. Would def recommend to anyone.
Reviewed by Jennifer5.0★Jul 2021
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"Really appreciated all the extra items such as the food basket, the extra toilet roll, washing tablets, seasoning, etc."
Comfy beds.
Found the bathroom a bit small. And it would have been helpful to know the full layout/floorplan before we booked.
Reviewed by India4.4★May 2021
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