Pembroke Cottage

Dogfriendly Magazine Review

Read our comprehensive review of this listing printed in our bi-monthly magazine.

Name: Pembroke Cottage
Reviewer: Deb Bridges 

For several years, my friend, Nean, and I had been walking the South West Coast Path with our dogs, in carefully planned stages. By the time we reached the final leg of our 630-mile journey, Nean’s lovely Golden Retriever, Bess, had retired from long distance walking and we were a team of just three. It had been an epic adventure and, in order to end with a flourish, we decided to treat ourselves to a two-night stay in a dog friendly cottage, allowing us to spend three days walking the last 20 or so miles around Dorset’s Isle of Purbeck at a leisurely pace. 

We set about finding accommodation and Pembroke Cottage in Langton Matravers ticked almost all boxes, looking comfortable and well placed for accessing the relevant section of the coast. However, I’d spotted a clause stating dogs were not allowed upstairs which left a cross in one important box, as my dog, Ula, holds strong views about where she will sleep and anywhere other than her own bed in the corner of my room just will not do. So I fired off a quick email to Dorset Cottage Holidays and received a swift and friendly response. I was pleased to hear they have a pretty flexible approach and do their best to accommodate requests such as mine, provided dogs are regularly treated for fleas. Pembroke Cottage is a terraced, 19th-century quarryman’s cottage, accessed by a path that leads from the High Street along the front of the cottages. Although there is no designated parking, we had no difficulty tucking the car into a spot on the road nearby. Arriving at the end of a long day, which involved the drive down as well as our first day’s walk, we were feeling a bit jaded. But we perked up as soon as we opened the front door of Pembroke Cottage and stepped into an unexpectedly large lounge. There’s a wide doormat area just inside the door and a neat space to one side to put your boots and the rest of the flooring is solid oak. Arranged around a wood burning stove and flat screen television, there are two- and three-seater leather settees. On the rug in front of the stove, there was a nice, squishy dog bed and a large dog towel. At the far end of the lounge, a door leads into the kitchen and here the flooring changes to a beautiful, coloured slate. Clearly, this room has undergone a fairly recent makeover and the grey/blue tiled walls and white units – not to mention the lit cupboards and shelves – are stylish. There’s a built-in electric oven, an electric hob, a microwave, a dishwasher and even a wine cooler. Two swivel stools were nestled beneath a breakfast bar, on which we found a mysterious remote control that had us stumped, until we tried pressing the buttons and the window blind went up and down. A short flight of stairs leads from the kitchen to the first floor, where there are two bedrooms, a single and a double. These are good-sized rooms which are simply furnished with touch-sensitive bedside lights. The beds are on the firm side and there are wooden blinds at the windows. Nean chose the single room because she liked the snazzy wallpaper and Ula and I made ourselves at home in the double.

 The pièce de résistance on this floor is the bathroom, with its sparkling modern suite with shower over bath and an amazing wall of obscured, coloured glass squares. Up another short flight of stairs, there is a third bedroom in the eaves. This room has limited headroom and the double bed is a low, contemporary design, set in a frame of dark wood with integral bedside tables. Everything in the cottage was squeaky clean. We could see that a good deal of thought had been put into making the best use of the space and there are a number of quirky knick-knacks and interesting artworks about the place which make it homely, without feeling cluttered. The cottage also boasts many original features and beams, along with a lot of Mind Your Head signs! Each of the cottages has a small garden on the other side of the path which leads past the front doors. Ours was a well-fenced, private space of neatly mown grass, with a table and four chairs, barbecue and washing line. We’d intended to visit the local pub on our first evening but, having got ourselves ensconced in the cosy lounge, the idea quickly lost its appeal. Instead, we opted to rustle something up in the kitchen and found the drawers and cupboards well-stocked with everything we could possibly need in the way of crockery, pots, pans and utensils. All was neatly arranged and no rummaging was required.

Heading out the next morning, we drove through the village along the main road, which is lined with attractive stone houses and, passing the The Kings Arms, we noticed it doubles as the village store. We also noticed it would be closed that evening, which scuppered our plans for dinner. But with other villages nearby and Swanage only two miles away, we were confident we wouldn’t starve. The village of Langton Matravers is fairly centrally placed in the Isle of Purbeck, which isn’t an island but a peninsula, jutting out into the sea and bordered on three sides by water. The landscape is one of rolling hills that seem to go on forever and the region is also home to some of Dorset’s most well-known landmarks, including Durdle Door, Lulworth Cove, Corfe Castle and Old Harry Rocks. There are plenty of beaches, too, including Studland Bay, a four-mile stretch of golden sand, where dogs are allowed year round. 

Our 10-mile walk that day took us from Worth Matravers to Swanage and, once the cloud had lifted, we were treated to fantastic views in all directions. On the way, we called in for a chat at the Coastguard Watch Station at St Aldhelm’s Head and paused to admire the stainless steel sculpture which commemorates the pioneering work on radar undertaken at Worth Matravers during WWII. We also passed the 18th-century limestone quarries of Tilly Whim Caves, now disused and home to bats and several species of birds. What you need after a leg-stretcher of a walk is a good, hot shower and facilities at Pembroke Cottage scored highly on this point, with unlimited hot water delivered under decent pressure. What you need next is food and we decided to give The Scott Arms in nearby Kingston a try. The website promised tasty, wholesome, locally sourced food and that’s exactly what we got – fish ’n’ chips for Nean and egg ’n’ chips for me. The pub is olde worlde, with a series of rooms where you can relax with a drink and/or food and the atmosphere is friendly. So friendly, in fact, that I almost lost an egg to the spaniel on the next table while we chatted to his people.

The next day, we had that reluctant-to-leave feeling you get at the end of a homely stay. But, having scratched the surface of the area’s hiking possibilities on our coastal route, we could see this is definitely somewhere that warrants a return visit and Pembroke Cottage would make the ideal base. 

Shortly after returning home, I received an email from Dorset Cottage Holidays, asking if we’d enjoyed our stay. As it also invited feedback, I tentatively mentioned we’d found the beds a bit on the hard side. Yet again, a friendly email pinged back almost immediately, with the positive response they would look into providing mattress toppers for their more creaky guests. All in all, I would say Pembroke Cottage was an enjoyable, home-from home experience. It was spotlessly clean, comfortable and I can imagine just how cosy that lounge would be in the winter months, with the log burner blazing away. And despite managing umpteen holiday properties in the county, Dorset Cottage Holidays offer a pleasantly personal service and I wouldn’t hesitate to book with them again in the future.

Pembroke Cottage Reviewed by Deb Bridges and appears in DogFriendly magazine issue 83.  For more information on the DogFriendly magazine visit https://www.dogfriendly.co.uk/magazine