Station Masters House, Bassenthwaite Lake, Keswick, The Lake District,

Got off to a bad start when the key we had been asked to collect from a key safe outside the office of the cottage agency was not there, and after a few phone calls we had to sit in our car for nearly an hour waiting while someone came out to open the office and get the key for us, not great after seven hours of travelling.

We were so disappointed to eventually arrive and find the cottage was about fifty yards from the very busy A66, a fact not mentioned at all in the brochure and no clue in the photograph of course. We live in a city and had come to the Lakes longing for some peace and quiet. Still, hoping things would improve we parked at the back of the property, I can only describe this area as a mess, weeds, overgrown with nettles, a broken down fence, no attempt had been made to make this area tidy or attractive. In through the back door in to a very tatty utility area with a light that didn't work and a strong smell of damp. This really set the scene for much of the cottage. Tired, shabby, a coffee table held together with gaffer tape, holes in the sofa cushions, filthy windows with cobwebs both inside and out, little details such as dirty fingermarks over all the light switches. An electric heater with a note left on it, presumably by a previous holidaymaker, stating that it should not be used as plug was getting 'very hot'!!

On the plus side the kitchen was well equipped, modern and clean, although very small, but the pantry area had mice droppings and was therefore unusable. We stored our food in our cool boxes for the week.

We came back every evening to a swarm of ants all over the dining room wall. The ceiling was damp and had peeling paper hanging down which dropped plaster dust daily over furniture. The bathroom was adequate but the area behind the loo had not been cleaned for what appeared a long time, and was really unacceptably dirty, very off putting. No towels provided which we had not realised, and had not experienced in a holiday cottage before, so we had to spend a morning and £50 buying new ones.

The view of the fell from the main bedroom window looked away from the road and was really lovely, but the noise from the road prevented us opening the windows. The bed was very comfortable though!

The garden was described as being 'cottage style', sorry but one rose bush and a weedy overgrown path through scrubby grass is not my idea of a cottage garden. No garden furniture or area to barbeque, but then you couldn't really spend any time in the garden because of the traffic noise.

I appreciate this is an old house and will have it's own character, but it really needs a good deep clean and some money spending on it to bring it up to standard. It fell very far short of other cottages that we have stayed in at a similar price range.