ridgehead farm, barrow moor, longnor, buxton, Derbyshire, sk17 0qy

Our reason for choosing Snipe Cottage on Ridgehead Farm for a fortnight was the location - and once we had negotiated the farm's seriously pot holed drive the views over the Staffordshire Moorlands exceeded our expectations.

We were greeted by Clive who gave us a bit of info.

The living room, which has glorious views has a mixture of old and new furnishings. The two seater sofa and small armchair have seen better days and were very uncomfortable, as were the dining chairs with ill fitting seat pads. There's a Freeview television, a radio and the WiFi is fine.

The kitchen is well equipped with cooker (touch screen), microwave, small dishwasher (too small for the dinner plates) and an array of utensils, saucepans china, glass and cutlery. However the baking/roasting trays were not good. Milk, tea, sugar, instant coffee, biscuits and wine were provided, together with dishwasher and laundry tablets, kitchen roll and washing up liquid. No other cleaning products were provided.

The washer drier in the utility room/downstairs loo had no manual but with the help of Clive and online research we just about managed to fathom out how it worked.

The stairs are pretty normal in gradient, with a handrail most of the way. Towards the top there are spindles to hold on to.

The double bedroom has a wardrobe and chest of drawers but nowhere to sit to do hair and make up. The bed has a deep foam mattress topper with which we quickly dispensed - thankfully so because it was in a pretty sorry state - but the mattress underneath was fine. No change of bed linen, as is customary with stays of a fortnight, were forthcoming so I'm guessing it's available on request.

The ensuite shower wasn't draining and in danger of flooding the bathroom but it wasn't until I'd reported it for the third time that Clive realised it was not a plumbing issue but a housekeeping one - the drain was clogged up with hair!

The cottage is only a 15 minute drive from Buxton and just a few minutes from Longnor which has a general store which seems to sell everything!

What a lovely place! The cottages are a home from home with everything you need to have a very comfortable stay. Jo and Clive are welcoming hosts, so you can't ask for more. For a place to stay to visit the Peak District, I would highly recommend. Being in Britain we had a glorious day on Saturday, and snow on Sunday, but Clive cleared the drive in no time, so not a problem. Thank you Jo & Clive, you have a very special place.

The cottages have been open for two years now and this is the forth time I have stayed here, sometimes with my family as on this occasion and other times on business with colleagues.

The location is peaceful and unspoilt being surrounded by moorland, and as it is on top of a hill there are superb views for miles across the Peak District.

There are some nice touches on arrival with milk in the fridge and biscuits, a bottle of wine and fresh flowers on the table.The hosts on all my visits have been most helpful, always on hand for questions as they live close by in the farmhouse but they leave you to it if that is what you want.

There are two cottages, Snipe and Curlew, both have similar layouts with a large lounge/diner, kitchen and utility room downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs, a double with ensuite and a twin with a separate bathroom. The kitchen is modern with granite worktops and everything you need, and there is a washer/dryer in the utility room, they even supply the powder, fabric conditioner and dishwasher tablets! Upstairs the bathrooms are also very modern with a large walk- in shower in the ensuite and a bath in the second bathroom. The rest of the cottage is tasteful with period touches and a reasonable amount of space for a holiday cottage but the bonus for me is underfloor heating downstairs which is great after a days walking.

There is plenty to do in the area, we went to Alton Towers this time and in the past have been to Chatsworth House and Haddon Hall, all about 20 min. drive. I would also recommend the Winking Man pub, 3/4 ml away for good pub food with discounts before 7.20.

Finally, I cannot finish this review without taking issue with some of Davey's comments, having stayed here several times the cottages have always been spotless and I have seen no evidence of rats, mice or any other rodents. I stayed in Curlew on this visit, with the 4 poster bed that davey had a problem with and it did not creak and sag as he suggests and was perfectly comfortable so I can only assume it was something broken that has been fixed.

I have stayed in holiday cottages all over the country and have no hesitation in recommending these to anyone wanting a peaceful, value for money holiday in a beautiful part of England.

A very peaceful looking cottage not overlooked by anything other than fields and your fellow cottagers in the other half of the conversion. On arrival we were seen in briefly pointed towards a manual with information in, left promptly and not bothered for the whole week. A nice few touches like cookies, wine and milk were supplied. 95 percent of items in this cottage seemed at least mid range, including fittings with nothing reminiscent of 'value' type quality.

Upstairs has a much more modern feeling to it and has well fitted bathrooms.

The main downfall with this cottage was the bed. Iv never had a new bed in my life and this was the worst iv had to use. You can feel every spring in the mattress and the whole frame rocks when you roll over making the noise of three squeaky barn doors. There is no central support for the bed slats meaning if your over 10 stone each you will end up sagging down into the middle with your other half. I suspect looking at some of the doors around the cottage there is some DIY going on when woodwork is concerned. This is nice that it adds to the charm of the place but not when your sleep is so badly interrupted. We finnally got some quilts and padded it out sufficiently so if you have a matress topper at home bring it with you and that will sort out half the issue. I am of slender build and my mrs is slightly more padded but we both wasted half of our first day trying to catch up on lost sleep due to back ache and the noisey rats. It sounded like they were knawing at the spot lights trying to get in the bedroom. The last negative was a condom wrapper fell out when we pulled the sheets back. We also noticed sock type fluff at one end and lots of hairs around the pillows and decided to raid the store cupboard for clean sheets just for peace of mind if for some reason they had been missed in the clean, we are all human so accept we might accidentally bypass something.

It might be a good thing but I doubt any child under 12 could open the front door as it swells up in the damp and jams badly so well built adults will be on door duty.

So if you think you can get round this one bad area or are used to beds in need of replacement everything else is well decorated/clean throughout and wont find anything else worth moaning about, you never know they might replace the bed one day.

We tried the royal oak pub and was very good food definately worth a try but dont forget to book as they get busy. Also if you try the stilton burger and dont like blood ask for it well done or it comes out mooing. We visited many wildlife parks and stately houses that were very local but do check they are open as many are closed for the winter. This was fairly cheap and overallwe managed to have a relaxing time. There is a video on youtube titled ridgehead cottage, of the bed incase you think im a huge overweight american expecting the ritz and have exaggerated lol