The Old School Room, Longhorsley

The Old School Room is a compact cottage in the middle of Longhorsley, a Northumberland village with a well-regarded shop and a dog-friendly pub a few hundred yards from the door. The owners live next door and are the reason most dog owners rate the stay: the welcome pack is generous and locally sourced, and it reliably includes biscuits or treats for the dog, along with poo bags and an unusually detailed guide to local walks beside the usual bread and milk.

The cottage is small and works best for two, or three at a push. There are twin beds and a good sofa bed, no dishwasher, and the bathroom is reached through the bedroom, which is the main thing to check against how the group plans to sleep. It is warm, well equipped and easy to park at, and guests repeatedly note that it carries no smell of previous dogs.

The garden needs explaining properly, because it is the one part of the stay that has gone wrong for guests. It is enclosed and dogs use it happily, but it is shared with the owners rather than private to the cottage, and access is offered rather than guaranteed. At least one stay lost the use of it entirely: first because the owners' own dog was recovering from an operation, then because the electric gates onto the main road were left open and could not be fixed until the following day. That party did not feel the property matched its dog-friendly billing. Most guests have no such trouble and are simply invited to use the space, and the owners keep their own lively young dog out of the way if a visiting dog would rather not meet her.

Longhorsley works as a base: a short drive to the A1, the Northumberland coast and the national park, with the larger supermarkets in Morpeth. Opinion divides on the sofas and the single mattresses, which several guests found low or soft.

With a 4.7/5 paw rating, The Old School Room suits one or two people with a dog who value a genuinely helpful host and a village on the doorstep, and who will confirm garden access when they book.