Monkey & Mouse / Steading press trip October 2018
"At the weekend we stayed somewhere extra special, a little gem of a cottage in the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh. On our first day we went for a late afternoon walk up the hills behind the cottages. It may have been a bit chilly when we started out, but we soon warmed up climbing up the path to the Kips above Eastside Cottages. It’s really not that far, even for little legs like our 4 year olds!
You can see all the way across to Edinburgh and the Forth Bridges. Of course it’s a great vantage point to see down to the cottages too, watching the tractor moving around and horses trot along the track. We had great fun sitting and watching. But it was late and the sun was going down as we were at the top, so after a quick break we were on our way back down ready for dinner.
We stayed in the lovely Steading at Eastside Cottages. A beautifully converted hay shed, which now has 2 bedrooms and can sleep 4 people comfortably. Of course the main feature downstairs is the awesome spiral staircase, which for our stay turned into Gryffindor Tower for Harry Potter shenanigans. Wingardium Leviosa!!"
Wingardium Leviosa!!
"Outside there is a lovely garden that the kids would have been out in a lot if the weather had been better. Perfect for picnics and barbecues! There’s also a sheep pen at the back of the property, where the kids were excited to see the sheep in on the Sunday morning, not sure the sheep were so keen on being watched.
You could easily spend a lot of your time at the cottage exploring the variety of walks around the area. We loved getting up to the top of the hills behind the cottages and we would all have loved to go a bit further.
There are loads of other places to visit with an hour of the cottages, you can easily travel to both Edinburgh and Glasgow, the coast over in East Lothian, down into the Scottish Borders and over toward Biggar in South Lanarkshire. Activities can vary from leisurely walks along beaches and in woodlands, visits to museums and sculpture parks or surfing, biking and skiing. There is easily something for everyone in the local area!"
