My wife and I visited the Lake District and stayed at Storrs Gate House the evenings of July 13-15, 2007.

What can one say about this place? It's lovely and charming, and the hosts, Vince and Shirley Byrne, are accommodating and as pleasant as can be. The place is well deserving of its awards. (See the inn's web site (www.storrsgatehouse.co.uk) for the impressive list of commendations.)

The rooms are absolutely beautiful. Shirley and her "mum" needlepoint and their expert work is hung throughout the house--in the lovely dining room (a bright room with large windows through which one can see the local birds feeding), in the bedrooms, and in the common room.

Speaking of the common room, wireless network access is available in it--a great boon to Americans trying to access e-mail and get some news from the US.

Vince is an excellent waitperson, attendant to all needs. The breakfast served daily is varied and delicious. The "full English breakfast" is available, but also available are cold cereal, and excellent croissants, muffins, and fruit.

On occasion, the Byrnes will also serve supper for those desiring it. We were interested in having supper there since the breakfasts were so good, but the Byrnes were taking a few nights off from that task when we there. This wasn't a problem as Windermere has excellent restaurants. (Specifically, Nissi is quite good, but the best supper we had in Bowness-on-Windermere--and perhaps in all of England in our two-week trip--was at Jackson's.)

One story: Vince made arrangements for us to go on a tour of the Lake District for Sunday, July 15. (Done through SuperTours--www.lakes-supertours.com. Highly recommended--being with our guide, Roger, for the day was one of the highlights of our entire trip.) During the call, he was apparently asked who was to be picked up. His response: "Friends from America." This is representative of the experience at Storrs Gate House: People arrive as guests, but leave as friends.

The hotel is very clean and the owners Vince and Shirley are very friendly. Its a few minutes away from the town center where you will find quite a few bars and restaurants.
We stayed in room five which is on the second floor and has a nice view over the garden. The room was en-suite and very comfortable. The breakfast is also very good with a good selection of courses. This was our first ever stay in the Lake District, and the hotel made it even better by being an excellent choice.

Thank You
David & Susan

We stayed for 3 nights as a birthday treat for my husband, and what a treat!
Vince and Shirley are the most welcoming and hospitable couple you could hope to meet.....(scrambled egg aside, Shirley!!!!! hah hah).
The breakfast was so tasty and well presented and the home made jam and marmalade were just devine.
A lovely room with a most comfortable bed.
Would we stay again?
Absolutely, without a doubt.

We arrived on Mon 28th May (Bank holiday). The weather was little dull but OK. Bowness was very busy as expected. Vince and Shirley welcomed us upon arrival, then took us through what we needed to know about breakfast, meals etc... They then asked us what we had planned for our stay and helped us with advice and local knowledge to enable us to have a fantastic time. The room had a King sized 4 poster bed and easily managed a single bed, on which our tall 11year old fitted without any sleepless nights. The facilities were superb, en-suite shower room & toilet, fantastic breakfast (11yr old never eats breakfast usually, but couldn't wait).

The grounds and location of the house are great, 10-15 mins gentle walk into bowness, 5 mins walk down to the car ferry. We took Vince's tip and grabbed some mountain bikes on the 1st day and off we trotted across the car ferry on a gentle (I mean flat) cycle. We toured around for about 5 hours having only thought we'd be out for around 2. The weaher was dry, sunshine, but not too hot. 2nd day we headed off to Hawkshead by car, a lovely place - the grammar school is well worth the £2.00 fee for the very informative talk by the guide.

We crashed back at the room for an hour before heading off into windermere, weather great again. Then 3pm-ish rain and cloud, so we dived off into Kendal for some undercover shopping.

Places to eat - The Spinnery ijn Bowness - lovely staff, great meals.
Places to visit - Hawkshead, the little tea room was excellent, Ambleside - we only managed a quick drive through on the last night. Windermere - Lakeland shop well worth a visit and some quaint olde-worlde shops.

Would we stay there again - we are going to book again for next year - it's just a superb location and a real friendly place to stay, Vince and Shirley made us feel at home and very welcome.