Holme Cottage, Holme Next-The-Sea

Norfolk. Sleeps up to 8

Sitting in fabulous gardens of almost one acre, split between formal gardens, a children’s play garden and gorgeous woodland gardens, Holme Cottage offers a fantastic blend of old meets new. With a very attractive traditional carrstone and brick exterior, the cottage has been brilliantly extended and renovated to offer a contemporary interior with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a cosy living room with a wood burning stove, a fabulous kitchen and a wonderful family and dining room. There are so many treats in store at Holme Cottage including a fantastic master bedroom suite with an in-room freestanding bath, a shower room and a balcony, a trampoline, swings and a zip wire for the kids, a gorgeous area in the woodland with a firepit and a bench, a fabulous terrace for alfresco dining and a summer house full of games and fun.

Holme Cottage enjoys a fabulous spot in the tranquil, pretty village of Holme-next-the-Sea on the North Norfolk Heritage Coast in a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The village is very popular with an excellent pub, breathtaking beaches and a protected nature reserve, the home of many breeding birds. The added attraction of this beautiful part of North Norfolk are its huge skies and fantastic sunsets. You will never tire of the brilliantly coloured huge skies at the end of the day. There are many characterful coastal villages to visit, stunning beaches, HM The Queen’s Sandringham Estate, RSPB Nature Reserves, an endless list of gastropubs, Wells-next-the-Sea with its colourful beach huts and the absolutely charming Burnham Market with its trendy shops, delis, galleries and boutiques. One week in Norfolk will definitely not be enough!

The ground floor of Holme Cottage is home to one of the bedrooms. With a very high, sloping ceiling with beams and double doors that open directly to the garden, it is a lovely, bright and airy room. Next door is a bathroom with a bath and shower handset. The cottage’s galley kitchen offers all the appliances you will need for your self-catering holiday. The dining room has been extended to form a second living space, perfect for family games or listening to music on the wireless speaker. The neutral walls are decorated with lovely contemporary art. Next door to the dining and family room is a cosy living room with three sofas and an atmospheric log burning stove. Here you can watch television, log onto your Netflix account or enjoy a cup of tea and the Sunday newspapers in front of the roaring fire.

Upstairs, you will discover three delightful bedrooms. The first is a twin, ideal for children and adults alike, the second, facing the front garden is a gorgeous double with a newly renovated, smart en-suite shower room and lastly the impressive master bedroom suite. You may have to draw straws for this one! With its high ceilings, beam, freestanding bath, separate shower room and balcony overlooking the gardens, it is superb. All you might hear is the country birdsong, the hoot of an owl or the occasional village church bells.

Despite beautiful, stylish interiors, the best part about Holme Cottage is its truly magnificent gardens. To the front is a lovely garden with pretty borders and a raised lavender bed. Pretty clematis climbs the carrstone welcoming you. At the rear, the first section of the garden is formal with gorgeous planting in the beds, a spacious terrace for alfresco wining and dining and the summer house, full of deck chairs, beach equipment and family games such as giant jenga. The next section of the garden boasts swings and a fun trampoline. Following this is the woodland with its paths, spring bulbs, beautiful planting, fairytale children’s section and at the far end, a fun zip wire. There is a particularly beautiful part of the garden deep in the woodland with a charming, giant bench and a firepit where you can spend some magical family time.

It is clear to see that Holme Cottage is no ordinary holiday home. It is much loved and offers one of the best gardens on the North Norfolk coast.

Holme Cottage is nestled on a quiet lane in the pretty village of Holme-next-the-Sea. The village is utterly charming with cottages built with carrstone or flint, a village field, a stables, an absolutely stunning beach and a traditional pub with good food, a friendly welcome, gardens and cosy fires. The Norfolk Wildlife Trust looks after part of the beach, the nesting birds and the boardwalks. It is just a five minute walk to the pub from the cottage and fifteen minutes through a field to the estuary and beach.  

There are many other wonderful beaches within easy reach of the house. Old Hunstanton is just ten minutes away with its gorgeous dunes, soft sand, big skies and a sea full of wind and kitesurfers. At one end of the beach you will find the lighthouse and, tucked in the dunes, are some colourful beach huts. The beach continues into Hunstanton where you can enjoy the family amusement arcades, shops and cafes. Just along from Holme-next-the-Sea is Brancaster, a designated area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The most famous of the North Norfolk beaches is Holkham Bay. The beach is one of the most unspoilt and beautiful stretches of sand in the country. With a glorious semi-circle basin filling to form a spectacular shallow lagoon at high tides, this beach is famous for the closing scene in Gwyneth Paltrow’s ‘Shakespeare in Love’. You can walk from Holkham to Wells, admiring the dunes, colourful beach huts and small rivulets and streams along the way.

Bird lovers head to the RSPB nature reserves at Titchwell and Snettisham or to Holme Beach, Holkham or the Blakeney National Nature Reserve. RSPB Snettisham is home to waders, wildfowl and many other birds. Between August and January you will see tens of thousands of birds leaving the mudflats and landing in the Snettisham hides. You will experience spectacular aerial displays and watch huge numbers of pink-footed geese fly over from Iceland. The estate is also home to resident barn owls and that soft hooting is joyful. Pensthorpe Waterfowl Park is popular too.

There are plenty of historical houses to visit including Royal Sandringham, Houghton Hall and the National Trust’s Blicking Estate, Felbrigg Hall and Oxburgh Hall. Sandringham is the much-loved country retreat of HM The Queen and has been the private home of four generations of British Monarchs since 1862. You can visit part of the house, the private gardens and St Mary Magdalene Church as well as taking delightful walks through the estate. There are frequent craft shows and other events in the grounds. The Holkham Estate is huge at 25000 acres. Holkham Hall is rich in history, architecture and wildlife. The seat of the Earl of Leicester, this elegant 18th century mansion is still a much loved, lived-in family home which visitors can also enjoy. There are six acres of walled garden, originally laid out by Samuel Wyatt in the late 1700’s. Visitors enjoy the walking and cycling paths, the lakes, watching the deer, the tree top high ropes course with its swings, bridges and ziplines, rowing boats, canoes and kayaks on the lake and the woodland play area. It is an outstanding family excursion.

Golfers can enjoy rounds at Heacham Manor Golf Club, Fakenham Golf, Searles Golf Club, Hunstanton Golf, Royal Cromer Golf and Kings Lynn Golf Club. Not only do most of the courses enjoy beautifully manicured greens nestled in a landscape of dunes, they also come with stunning sea views.

The area is also excellent for sailing. Coastal Exploration Company offers a variety of options for day and half-day trips and sailing lessons. One of the most popular boat trips is from Morston to see the seals at Blakeney. There are plenty more boat trips, one being from Hunstanton which is five minutes’ drive from Holme Cottage.

If you enjoy a potter around the shops, Burnham Market and Holt are perfect. Brimming with unique independent shops, welcoming gastropubs such as the Hoste, cute delis, cafes and galleries, all around a delightful village green, Burnham Market is incredibly popular. The August arts and crafts fair is fabulous with craft stalls, pop up eateries, puppet shows, alfresco dining and a very jolly atmosphere. Holt is another Norfolk gem, again with wonderful art galleries, eateries and charm. Drove Orchards between Holme next-the-Sea and Brancaster is another shoppers paradise with some gorgeous shops, Gurneys fish shop, an excellent garden shop and the famous Eric’s fish and chips and pizza restaurants. Just a little further comes the outstanding Thornham Deli. The Gin Trap Inn in Ringstead, just a few minutes from Holme Cottage, is famous for its fantastic range of gins.

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