Where We Stayed

For one wonderful week, my sister and I were staying at Matchbox Cottage in Ripon. The description and pictures on the website don't do it justice - it is much spacier than we had expected, and since it has been renovated only in January, it still has a fresh and modern look and feel about it, at the same time being very cosy and nice. We felt so much at home there that we really did not want to leave when our week ended.

Matchbox Cottage is part of and belongs to the same people who run Box Tree Cottages. I have posted about the B&B here; Matchbox Cottage is self-catering. It can be booked through here or here. The owners are very friendly and made us feel welcome just as they have done in the past.

A five-minute walk will take you to Ripon's market square and town hall (where the tourist info has now moved to), a further two minutes and you stand in front of the cathedral. The bus stop for buses going to Harrogate, Leeds or the Dales with their villages and small towns is just behind the market square, so you are quite mobile even without a car.

Now for the pictures:

The front of the house shows Matchbox Cottage on the far left; the rest of the building is Box Tree Cottages.

 Front door and front garden:

Our own private side garden, secluded from the road and front garden by hedges:


Can you believe we never actually used it - we were mostly out during the day, and by the time we arrived back home, it had become too chilly to sit there. But if our next stay (and there definitely will be a next time!) is a bit warmer weather-wise, I can very well imagine us having some of our meals there.




Back door to kitchen and back garden:

The back garden does not belong to the cottage, but is used by the owners. But they told us that they were perfectly OK with us climbing over the little fence if we wanted to play with their two cats (something we did not take advantage of more than once or twice).

Coming in by the back door, you would see this:

The kitchen is fully equipped with stove, microwave, washing machine, dishwasher, fridge, freezer, kettle, cutlery, crockery, pans and pots and everything you need to make all your meals. One of the drawers pulls out into a small breakfast table, which we never used, because we found it so much nicer to sit in our pretty living/dining room.

Next on the ground floor are a brand new shower room with toilet and one of the two bedrooms:

And of course, there is the cosy living room with dining table, where we had breakfast and many of our other meals. We lit the (artificial) fire every night, it made for such a homely atmosphere (apart from really warming up the room).

Upstairs was my bedroom with en-suite shower room and toilet. I slept very well in that big bed!

The owners have two cats and a dog (we never heard the dog bark - everything was very quiet). The cats came visiting sometimes, but quickly lost interest when they realised we were not going to feed them. Here are Peggy and Callie:

Now you know where we've been, and where the walks you'll find spread out over my next posts have started from.