Cley Corner Cottage

Cley Corner Cottage sits on the Coast Road at Salthouse, on the north Norfolk coast between Cley next the Sea and Weybourne, with windows looking straight out over the salt marshes to the sea. For dog owners the location is close to ideal: the beach is a fifteen-minute walk, the marshes are on the doorstep for birdwatching, there is a dog-friendly pub next door, and the nearest stretch of sand welcomes dogs for morning walks. A porch at the entrance takes boots and gives you somewhere to dry muddy feet before they reach the carpet.

Inside, the cottage is warm and characterful, with a log burner, heating that copes with a cold snap, and a welcome tray of tea, coffee, biscuits and cake. Parking is right outside on grass, which is convenient in dry weather and slippery in wet, with wheel spin on the uphill patch reported after rain.

The garden needs a clear-eyed look before you book. It is enclosed, but only partly: the netting covers roughly three quarters of the perimeter, the front hedge and fence are low, and the road runs a few metres from the boundary. Several dog-owning guests have flagged the same thing independently, and one stay ended with a dog picking up thorns in its paw from rose prunings left on the lawn. Treat the garden as somewhere to supervise a dog rather than somewhere to leave one, and walk the boundary yourself on arrival.

Cleanliness is the other recurring theme, and a good deal of it involves dogs. Guests have arrived to a strong dog smell in the living room, hair across the cushions and carpet, and sofas that needed hoovering. That is residue from previous pet-owning parties rather than anything the cottage does deliberately, but it is a real issue if anyone in your group reacts to it. The wider interior draws similar comments, including limescale, stained cutlery and sofas, mould on the shower curtain and furniture that guests felt did not match the nightly rate.

At 4.2/5, Cley Corner Cottage is for people who come to north Norfolk for the marshes and the birds and will spend most of the day outdoors with the dog. It is not the cottage to book if you need a secure garden or a spotless interior.