Stone Moor Lodge, Justin's Peak District Base Camp

Justin and Vic are great hosts! They were really accommodating and always responded timely to texts. The lodge was private and cozy, which was great. If you want to stay in a quiet beautiful town, definitely recommend.

Our expectations were simple: we were looking for a place with good heating and a kitchen so that we could warm up and prepare our own food after hiking around the Peak District. The furnishings were pretty nice, but our experience at the lodge essentially ruined the trip. After a seamless check into the property, everything was mostly acceptable for the first two nights aside from the occasional smell of sewage. However, on the third morning, things went awry when the power was suddenly cut. My partner, who was sleeping on the upper bunk bed, also pulled his shoulder when the ladder collapsed as he was coming down and he had to break the fall. We sent the landlord a couple messages and attempted to ring him but none went through. As we were planning to go out anyway and my partner’s injuries weren’t serious, we let it go for the time being and hoped he would see our messages and resolve the issue before we got back. However, when we returned at about 5 pm, the power was still out. We had to wait an hour before he returned our calls. We appreciate that he immediately resolved the issue upon returning to the property after half an hour, apologised and allowed us to check out late the following day (we were scheduled to leave then). We also understood that he had an emergency situation to attend to, but considering our circumstances, it was difficult to be sympathetic and even harder to believe in retrospect after the power cut for the second time the following morning and he was once again not around to resolve it. At that point we were ready to bake a cottage pie we had been hoping to have the previous night. However, as the power cut at around 11 am - the technical checkout time - I suppose our landlord saw little point in returning to fix it, instead suggesting we took a plastic food box out of his shed and storing our food in there. These were rather musty and dusty; I would be wary about storing food in there even after a good wash. I understand the power cuts and unresponsiveness may have been a one-time issue considering he received a lot of positive reviews in the past, but this essentially ruined the trip; we were considering continuing to another national park, but we ended up having to cut our trip short as a result of having to lug around food that should be in the refrigerator. Time that we could have spent unwinding was spent ruminating on all the issues the lodge caused with our planning - in the darkness I must add!

Great cabin located at the north of the peak district. Perfect for a weekend away.