The Loft, Holmesfield

The Loft is a barn conversion on a working farm above Holmesfield, with the Peak District on one side and Sheffield twenty minutes down the road. For a dog it offers a good deal of space: a courtyard, a field, farm tracks, and walks that begin where you park the car.

The farm has its own dogs, and they are a feature of the stay rather than a footnote. They greet guests in the morning and are sociable with visiting dogs, and puppies brought here have settled well around them. The flip side is that they bark early and hang around the kitchen door looking for attention, which delights some guests and wears on others. A dog that reacts badly to other dogs would not enjoy it.

Up to two dogs are welcome. No pet fee is published on the property's booking listing, so confirm the charge when you book.

The outdoor space needs a caveat. The courtyard is open rather than enclosed, and the big field beyond it is sometimes out of use because horses are grazing, so what looks like acres of secure running space is not always available. Guests who had the field describe it as ideal, including for a last trip out at night.

Inside, the building is old and behaves like it. The beams are low enough that returning guests advise leaving a lamp on overnight, the bedrooms interconnect so reaching the far room or the bathroom means walking through the others, and one main bathroom serves a large party. Reviews split sharply on whether that reads as charm or as wear. Several guests love the rusticity and say so at length; others have arrived to cobwebs, a stale smell, a stained sheet, worn sofas, a half-working oven and a hot tub cover too broken to lift back on. Cleanliness is the clearest inconsistency in the record.

The hot tub and sauna are the draw for most parties and generally work well, though the chlorine has been dosed heavily enough to sting. The nearest pub is a mile away and shuts on Mondays, the nearest shop is a drive, and more than one group has arrived to no welcome pack, no toilet roll and too few towels, so stock up on the way in.

It earns a 4.3/5 paw rating. Best suited to a large group with dogs who are comfortable around other animals and want space, views and a hot tub, and who will take an old farm building as they find it.