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A tour of One Long Houses

Westmorland farmhouse living

We let One Long Houses for up to 10 people. We welcome up to two well behaved dogs with owners who clean dirty paws! The house is surrounded by working sheep farms so gates should be kept shut and dogs under control.

The house has 5 bedrooms and you can see the floorplan here.

"Herdwick" king bed ensuite
"Pheasant" super king
"Egg & Feather" double
"Hearts" twin bed
"Workshop" king bed ensuite in outhouse - a few steps from the main house.

Wi-Fi

Broadband internet is provided via Wi-Fi and is free to use. It is reliable in the main house but we cannot guarantee it in the outside Workshop Bedroom (but it usually works). Unusually for such a remote location the valley was upgraded to a fibre service in 2019 and we have a FTTH connection which gives good broadband - perfectly good for watching online TV services and you can use your Netflix login and similar services on the TV which also has apps for all the terrestrial services (iPlayer, ITVplayer, More4 etc). There is poor mobile coverage in the valley (only EE gets a signal), but our phones work fine using wifi calling in and around the house.. One Long Houses is a stunning work-from-home location if you fancy a change. There are tables to work at in the living room, kitchen and sun room.

Let's start with the bedrooms, four of which are named after their curtain/blind fabric, and the fifth after its former function! All are provided with large fluffy bath towels, cotton bed linen and decent shower water pressure. All except the Workshop are on the first floor (second floor if you are an American reader) reached via the main staircase from the hall, and the spiral staircase from the living room. These four are connected by a long landing corridor that spans the length of the building and in part opens up into a gallery area overlooking the living room, which we use as a library. All the upstairs bedrooms are radiator central-heated from our bio-mass boiler. The Workshop bedroom is in a separate building 5 steps away and has underfloor heating also from the bio-mass boiler.

Herdwick king ensuite

This is the old farmhouse's main bedroom and it is lovely, situated at southern end of the house above the kitchen. The bedroom window-seat looks out over the front garden, orchard, and valley beyond. When we renovated the house we were unable to use the floor boards in this room, so they are reclaimed from the roof of an old mill. The ensuite bathroom features a roll-top bath, walk in shower, vanity unit, WC and heated towel rail.

Workshop super-king ensuite

This former outhouse workshop is reached via the rear dining room glass door and is just five steps away from the main house. It's a great bolt hole for a teenager or grandparents, or for you! The ensuite shower room has a large walk in shower, vanity unit, WC and heated towel rail. This room is not available for the six person / 4 bedroom letting option.

Pheasant super-king

This spacious bedroom in the old barn side of the house has a high ceiling with the original barn beams, massive super-king bed, and two windows looking out over the front garden and across the valley. Right across the corridor is a bathroom, making it a quasi-ensuite. The bathroom has a vanity unit, bath, walk-in shower, WC and heated towel rail.

Egg & Feather double

This is a cosy little bedroom with a double bed. It shares the shower room with 'Hearts', or could of course use the bathroom down the corridor opposite 'Pheasant'.

Hearts twin bedroom

Across the corridor from 'Herdwick', this bedroom has twin single beds. The cosy window seat looks out over the front garden and valley beyond. It is served by the shower room, just across the corridor, which features a walk-in shower, vanity unit, WC and heated towel rail.

Bathrooms

We have four bathrooms, two en-suite, one family bathroom opposite Pheasant, and one shower room serving Hearts and Eagg & Feather. There is also a downstairs WC. They are all finished to high standard and come with our own brand handwash and shower gel, as well as plenty of large fluffy towels. The image to the left shows the Herdwick en-suite bathroom.

Living Room

Downstairs is split into four living areas plus a fifth on the gallery overlooking the living room. This giant oak-floored space has a double height area around the main glazed barn doors that overlook the valley. The original barn oak beams frame the ceiling and are spotlit at night. The main barn door slides open onto the patio area outside and there's a smaller sliding door onto the large rear patio. Inside there's a large wood-burning stove, 51" curve-screen TV, blu-ray and DVD player, hi-fi amplifier with bluetooth connectivity and cd player and upright piano. Spiral stairs lead up to the gallery. And four steps take you up to the hall snug area. At the other end an oak door takes you through to the utility room and boiler room beyond. Like the rest of the ground floor, warmth is provided via underfloor heating.

Gallery

Overlooking the living room, and connecting the Bluebird bedroom to the rest of the house is the gallery area, which is well stocked with books and a couple of comfy chairs.

Hall/Snug

There's a cosy 3 seater sofa, plus a rocking chair and pig-bench facing the large original open (working) fireplace that would have once been the living area of the house two or three hundred years ago. You can see the original oak beams and with the slots that would have created a wood paneled corridor into the barn beyond. You can still see the carved archway marking that passage on the right hand side of the beam in the photo below. In the cupboard to the left of the fireplace is a TV so you can hole up here if the kids are watching a film on the main TV. The cupboard is also full of board games and jig-saws.

Off the snug is a passage leading to the dining room, off which is a downstairs WC.

Kitchen

The kitchen spans the width of the old house. It is slate floored (under-floor heated) and has a french farmhouse table that sits eight. Equipment includes an electric induction hob range cooker with two ovens and a grill, a further microwave combi oven, dishwasher, American style fridge freezer, food mixer, Nespresso coffee machine, quad-toaster and double butler's sink. It comes fully equipped with all the cutlery, crockery, glassware, pans and equipment that you would expect.

Sun / Dining room

Few people can suppress an 'ah!' when they walk through the kitchen into the dining room, which is plate glass on three sides, making it feel as though you are sitting on the fellside. It really is one of the best seats in the valley. The view is ever changing and sheep come right up to the garden fence (we fight a running battle with them as they occasionally break in and eat our flowers!).

A sturdy 12 seat farmhouse table sit in the centre of this oak floored room. There's a small wood-burner to keep things cosy on those winter evenings, or the glass panels slide open either end of the room in summer. We love having breakfast in this room as the sun rises over the valley.

Utility / Laundry room

Leading off the living room, and connecting to the boiler room (where you can dry wet clothes and boots) is the utility room. It houses a sink, washing machine, and tumble dryer, iron, ironing board and clothes drying rack. Also stored here are the high chair and cot.

Grounds

The front garden comprises a walled cottage garden leading to the front door, into the old (white painted) farmhouse. Over the wall and through a five-bar gate is a grassed paddock area and driveway in front of the old barn, which our restoration architect considers to be even older than the house. The driveway leads around the gable end of the barn to the back garden which looks out over the fields, valley, Kentmere and St Cuthbert's church, and to the fells and mountains beyond. A future project is to restore the dry stone wall around the back garden. All of the area described above is fenced and gated so your small kids can roam in safety. We don't guarantee it will hold in all dogs, but it does our little one.

Opposite the front garden gate is another white painted gate marked 'private' into the orchard. Another project for the future.

Outside the drive metal gateway is a parking area - four cars can park there or in front of the standalone barn. If you have bikes to store we can give you the barn keycode. Across the lane is an orchard area which also belongs to One Long Houses.

Interested in staying? Contact us here.

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