Orchard Farm Cottage

Orchard Farm Cottage sits at Barnby, a small Suffolk village in the Waveney valley between Beccles and Lowestoft, and it is set up for the kind of stay where the dog is the reason you chose self-catering in the first place. The garden is the headline: large, enclosed and properly fenced, and guests with dogs consistently describe being comfortable letting their dog out into it without standing over them.

There is a caveat attached to that, and it is a specific one. The boundary is wire and barbed wire rather than solid fencing, and it is not especially high. The surrounding fields hold hares, pheasants and sheep. Guests with dogs have flagged this as a genuine consideration for anything with a strong prey drive - a steady dog will be fine, a sighthound or a keen chaser may not be.

The cottage itself is repeatedly described as spotlessly clean and comfortable, with a conservatory that dog owners particularly rate: it looks out over the fields and the sheep, and gives you somewhere to sit with the dog rather than shutting them elsewhere. The setting is quiet despite being a short distance from a main road.

Practical limitations are worth knowing. The kitchen is well stocked but storage is tight, with a small fridge and little cupboard space - which matters on a longer stay when you are also storing dog food. Guests have also found the external door locks stiff and reported no hairdryer.

Best suited to one dog and its owners wanting a quiet Suffolk base with a big enclosed garden and wildlife on the other side of the fence, provided that dog is reliable around livestock.