Something different...

Remember the last holiday house you stayed in? Was it huge but ill-designed, with the en suite door banging against the basin? All knotty pine, polyester sheets, icy tiles and three wire coat-hangers?

This is very different. The cottages are architect-designed conversions of the farm’s stone-built grainstore and dairy, and sensitively and stylishly renovated. They are not large, but the main rooms are double height and filled with light. You may find things in the oddest places, but everything is done for your comfort and pleasure, and without outraging your taste. You will find comfortable beds with white cotton sheets and goose-down/feather duvets and pillows, big thick towels, decent pans and delph, herbs and spices and all the kitchen equipment you need. We have chosen subtle colours and thick curtains; some of the furniture and rugs are old (some are antique) but none of them is ugly. There are good paintings by Irish artists, plenty of lamps and a solid-fuel stove or inset fireplace in each cottage.

The TV is small and reception indifferent but there’s broadband, a DVD/CD player, good books, games, and maps of the surrounding country. The gardens are beautiful, and you can take a deckchair and tuck yourselves away in a secret garden, eat outside, sack out in a hammock in the orchard or go and pick some vegetables for your dinner.