Old Man of Coniston Campsite

Liked Nothing

Disliked Lack of accountability

I booked and paid for a grass pitch for my campervan. After booking, I was told by the site owner that the pitch was not accessible and I was instead offered a car park area.

That was not what I had booked, so I quite reasonably declined the alternative and requested a full refund. The site did issue a partial refund but chose to retain the booking fees, despite the fact that I did not cancel because I had simply changed my mind — the pitch I had booked was not accessible and could not be provided as booked.

I have therefore had to raise a chargeback with my card provider to dispute the amount that has been retained.

I find the whole situation extremely disappointing. If a campsite cannot provide the pitch that a customer has booked and paid for, I would expect the campsite to take responsibility and refund the customer in full.

Not the experience I expected, and I would not book here again nor recommend.

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From the manager: This is a completely inaccurate review. All campervans and rooftents were provided access to the campsite throughout. You can see a below review from a disgruntled camper that this was the case. All cars were asked to park in the car park and walk to pitch as we have had a period of excessive rain. When you contacted to advise you were in a van you were informed vans still had access to the site. I imagine, more than likely due to the relentless rain forecast you decided not to arrive. As a goodwill gesture I sent a partial refund minus the booking fees (£2.04) that you are now disputing.

For campers information we will be improving the access for next season in preparation for when there are periods of excessive rain.

Liked Really lovely campsite, easy to book, beautiful scenery, had nice clean portaloos! If you’re staying in a roof tent I would advise bringing levelling blocks :) will definitely be booking again next year

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Liked Lovely view and good location for the hike

Disliked Prime example of classism. If you can afford a campervan then you are golden.
Campervans and cars with tent boxes were allowed to set up camp like normal but people in tents had to park in a completely different field and then walk everything over to set up camp "due to rain"

considering camp is in the exact same field that all the other vehicles were allowed to be in, makes no sense.
They were more concerned about the campers turning up the next day over the ones they currently had.
We had 2 dogs with us so our options were to leave our dogs in the car in a completely different field while setting up camp or put up a tent in the wind while holding 2 leads.
It didnt rain all of Friday so everyone parked next to their tents because everything had dried up, they came round asking everyone to go park there cars in the other car park because of the early morning rain forecast. They said they didnt want us to ruin the entrance for the campers the next day. We said we were leaving early in the morning but that still wasn't ok.
Theres multiple campers and cars with tent box's but the few people with tents are considered too much for the ground to handle. (baring in mind it was actually more of a struggle to get in the carpark due to the "muddy damage" from the countless hikers of the day then it was getting in the campsite)
You could argue that if the tent goers have to park in the car park and walk over then the campers should have to park in there too.
This solution to "entrance damage" or "lack of planning on their part" as they called it surely only works if the majority are people in tents which isnt the case.
Shouldn't be 1 rule for one and 1 for another.
Shame because the views are stunning.

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From the manager: I’m sorry to read your review and that you feel this way. Unfortunately during a period of excessive rain we had to take measures to ensure that we could remain open and not have to cancel holidays. We decided to take the decision to allow campervans and rooftents on the site so that everyone then had the ability to camp on the main site. This was the only way to allow this. Unfortunately I do not have prior information from pitch up as to how many pitches are tents and how many are campervans or tent boxes. Usually we have majority of tents on site and a handful of the other.

Liked Lovely view... Beautiful place

Disliked Was very blustery and alot of rain... But would definetly be back in summer.

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Liked The view is stunning

Disliked Difficulty finding a pitch that wasn’t too sloped as it’s a hill field. Also very exposed as it’s so high up.
Access road is very steep, single track and long enough to tax the best gearboxes and driver. Definitely not suitable for larger vans as the turn into the gate is tight. Also the gate area is boggy and heavily rutted.
Couldn’t use as a base as the access road scared the wits out of me and didn’t want to have to do it again.

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From the manager: Sorry to read your review. Our pitches are advertised as 5mx5m, usually any vehicles longer than this contact me directly and I discuss the gate being tight for longer vehicles entrance, this being said we had a skip wagon, tractor and trailer and have had vans up to 6.6m access the site with no issues.

During your stay you were 1 of only 2 campers on site, we regularly have vans on site who manage to find an appropriate pitch. We also found it extremely disappointing to find that you had driven multiple laps of the field and caused significant damage to the site. Especially given the fact that you knew we were limiting access to the field to only vans and rooftents to minimise damage due to the significant amount of rain we had had.

Liked As described , good place to stop for the night. I had facilities in the van so couldn’t comment on toilets. Ideal location for hiking from.

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Liked Unbelievable scenery ❤️
Perfect location
Peaceful and quiet

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Liked Amazing view, you get the full experience right there from the comfort of your pitch! Toilets were in decent nick, slept perfectly soundly all night as it was perfectly quiet and what a great place to wake up. When night fell it was clear skies so with it being a dark skies area then that added another tick in the box. Can’t fault the place and it will be on my ‘to return’ list.

Disliked Nothing, it’s a great site

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Liked Excellent no frills campsite if that’s what you want. Extremely tight road and entrance so unsuitable for larger vehicles.

Slight gradient to the field meaning getting a decent pitch can be a bit difficult. Had a wonderful time with a more back to basics camp.

Disliked No drinking water taps so you must bring your own water for cooking/drinking.

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Liked Great location and stunning views! The campsite was as described, we were made to feel welcome by staff.

No fault of the campsite but we stayed on a very windy day so make sure to have a sturdy tent!

Would definitely come back

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