“On the whole we enjoyed a very relaxing stay at Crows Cabin, which is very much “off grid” if that is what you are looking for.”
It is very, very relaxing without the distractions of always being connected to the internet. The milk, bread and lovely eggs were very much appreciated and a lovely touch. The cooker was far better than our cooker at home, so if you want somewhere to stay and cater for yourself then this would be a good choice for you. The sitting area is very comfortable and the deck area gets the sun for most of the day, which was very useful. It was great to have the enclosed garden for our small dog and the facilities, although fairly basic, were more than adequate for a relaxing week away. The shower was much better than I expected, although people on the heavier side may struggle with the general dimensions of that and the internal doorways in general, which are quite narrow. A few niggles that we faced (that are meant as feedback an not general moans!). The cabin has a noticeable slope to it (high at the front, low at the back) which was fine for us but may cause people less steady on their feet some issues. The double bed is very old school and you sink right into it. It is also very noisy (the springs) when getting into and out of it. There isn’t much room to get past the end of the bed, so if you are on the larger side you will struggle with that. The guest information pack is a bit out of date I’m afraid! We went to The Boat Inn (luckily we drove), only to find that it no longer exists as a pub/inn. This really needs updating for guests unfamiliar with the area as this issue is exacerbated by the lack of connectivity as you are not able to check the opening times of the places you plan to visit, without heading to a pub or café (or some signal in general). I’m torn on this one as a positive and a negative, but this place really is off grid. There is no WiFi (not a problem as it is not advertised as having it) but we had no signal at all on our phones, which could be a safety issue for some people or in case of emergency. Please be aware of this. The meadow to the front of the cabin is very kindly offered as a place to use to exercise your dog, which is great except, that it was so established/overgrown (waist-high to 6’ man) that we were only able to use the tire tracks a part way into the field. A narrow path mown around the perimeter of the field would be sufficient and very useful to guests. Not related to the cabin but we were quite disappointed with the walks in the area itself. The public footpaths on the whole do not seem to be maintained much at all and some we couldn’t even find - they were so overgrown! This may partly be the time of year we visited but it was very annoying compared to other parts of the country that are well maintained and have clearly had more thought put into the visitor trade. We would not recommend walking alongside the A38 to get to places, it is quite a busy road. We’re experienced walkers (not walking fanatics) and I wouldn’t recommend this area for walking, compared with the likes of the Lake District, North Wales, North & South Devon or even where we live in Hampshire.
