The Reading Rooms, Oughtershaw – Review
By Matt Callard, September 2025
In the frenetic six-week school holidays, a place that offers peace, greenery and nature can feel like a public service. The Reading Rooms, a newly refurbished self-catering cottage in the tiny hamlet of Oughtershaw, deep inside the Yorkshire Dales, provides exactly that – a proper downshift, 25 minutes from Grassington but worlds from the hiss of traffic and the glow of screens. The visiting party of two adults had a simple brief: get their kids off their iPads and into the Great Outdoors. The house – and its setting – makes that not just possible, but irresistible.
Oughtershaw offers little in the way of attractions, and that turns out to be its gift. There is walking – miles of it – and there is silence, the kind that settles on a dale and seems to clarify the day. A working farm sits a few doors along; it does not interrupt the peace, though a pair of doe-eyed cows in the neighbouring field will accept a staring-match if encouraged. Rabbits patrol the adjacent green hill at dusk. The hill itself fills most of the primary view from the garden, which means panoramic drama is not the order of the day at the cottage. You are tucked away, down in a dell – and that’s part of the charm. For a sweep-the-eyes vista, a ten-minute amble up the moorland path delivers the promised horizon.
Aerial view of the Reading Rooms, with the stream running alongside the property
“More than decorative”
The cottage’s grounds amplify the pastoral spell. A wooden footbridge crosses a stream that burbles at the garden’s edge – diminished, during the current drought, to a silver thread of water, but still enough to tint the air with movement and to draw birds – we saw dippers, long-tailed tits, robins and pied wagtails. That water also draws midges, and at dusk they made their presence known; the wine bottle and conversation were encouraged indoors sooner than planned. Such compromises feel minor, the kind of seasonal footnote that confirms one is, in fact, in the countryside.
Inside, the Reading Rooms announces its history with quiet confidence. During the 19th century, “reading rooms” served as rural gathering places – for debate, education and community – and the Oughtershaw building retains that civic sturdiness. York stone roof tiles rest above trimmed lawns; a chunky stone fireplace anchors the main room; original A-frame timbers shape the roofline. The heart of the house is a double-height lounge floored with wood and softened by sisal rugs, its wood-burning stove more than decorative on a chill evening.
Rear of the property
“The quiet is notable”
French doors from the lounge open to the riverside garden, where the beck serves as a soundtrack and a wildlife lure. The open-plan kitchen/living space does what good holiday houses should do: it gathers people. The kitchen is superbly appointed – the kit you actually need is there – and the dining area makes the logistics of a family feel efficient rather than tactical.
On the ground level, a snug became the kids’ territory – their den, their breathing space away from parents, closed off with the happy thud of a door and a sense of ownership. Upstairs, two large double bedrooms, each with an en suite, hold their own in a market that often skimps on bathrooms. Here, they are spotless, modern and thoughtfully laid out. At night, the quiet is notable: a positive hush, unbroken by roads or neighbours, the sort of stillness that reminds a city-trained ear how loud ordinary life has become.
The proprietors have tuned the practicalities, too. Heating is pre-set to a comfortable range and hot water is constant – be warned, it runs properly hot. There’s a wood burner in the lounge for the romance of flames without the faff. A guest book within the house compiles appliance instructions, safety notes and local pointers; it’s worth the five-minute skim it requests. Supermarket deliveries are straightforward once you have arrived – Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons all serve the address – which makes a longer stay simpler. Electric vehicle charging is not permitted on site (cars, bikes and scooters alike), but the welcome information includes details of nearby public chargers. The administrative tone may sound fussy on paper; in practice it preserves the fabric and rhythm of a small rural property while giving guests what they need.
Living room
“Wit and clarity”
For families, the absence of contrived entertainment is a plus (although we did enjoy the on-hand cards and board games on an evening). There are walks from the door suitable for little legs and longer ambitions. The landscape itself becomes the prompt: counting sheep on the fell; skimming stones when the beck is fuller; listening to the breeze carry the faint workings of the farm along the lane. The day edits itself, screens give way to scavenger hunts, and the house turns into an evening refuge where the stove glows and the dishwasher hums.
Still, the Dales encourage an outing, and two day trips proved both convenient and revealing. In Hawes, about 15 minutes by car, the Wensleydale Creamery offers a kind of edible field lesson. Tasting is encouraged – one could, with determination, graze until surrender – but the real draw is the demonstrator who shows how cheese is made with enough wit and clarity to hold adults and children alike. A view into the factory floor prompts a gasp at the sheer volume of salt used in the process – an industrial panorama in sodium. The on-site restaurant is notably good and sensibly priced. The younger members of the party tolerated the tour with good grace but were plain about their preference for the nearby park’s zip line – proof that a well-sited slide can trump terroir.
Kitchen, with stairs leading to the Snug
“Space works”
The other excursion, to Stump Cross Caverns (50 mins), is a different kind of lesson, this time under the skin of the Dales. Hard hats on – dad managed to dislodge his several times on the low ceilings – and down into the limestone galleries the family went. The caverns are accessible without feeling sanitised; they read as geology rather than theme park. Back on the surface, a makeshift gem-panning set-up allowed the children to sieve for treasures and go home with pockets rattling. The café here, like the Creamery’s, punches above its weight – a recurring local theme.
Back at base, the Reading Rooms’ balance of modern convenience and historic character resolves into the quality that matters most in a family holiday: ease. The space works. Rooms are immaculate. The kit behaves. The house absorbs wet boots and tired tantrums with the grace of a place that understands its purpose. More than that, it encourages the reset that motivated the trip in the first place. There’s little to do here except walk – and bathe in the great silence – and that proves to be enough. Attention, narrowed to a hill, a stream and a sky, opens up again.
The main bedroom, with king-size bed
“Hub”
The Catch The Breeze Retreats collection, which also includes nearby Oughtershaw Hall, treats stewardship as part of hospitality. Here, that’s visible in the careful refurbishment of a community building that once served as a local hub and now serves as a hub of another kind – a family’s temporary home. The Reading Rooms has the patina of the past and the plumbing of the present. It looks, with its York stone and its beck and its clipped lawns, like a still from All Creatures Great and Small, yet inside it behaves like a new build that has learned its manners.
A true escape-from-it-all getaway is difficult to find – especially one that is modern and brilliantly appointed – but the Reading Rooms in Oughtershaw qualifies. When the riot of modern life builds again, the route back to this dell will be easy to remember.
The Reading Rooms, Oughtershaw
2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 4 guests, dog-friendly property.
Book your stay at The Reading Rooms with prices starting from £652 for four guests by contacting the team today www.catchthebreeze.co.uk
Telephone: 01829 830 388 Email: info@catchthebreeze.co.uk. For larger groups, consider booking nearby sister property Oughtershaw Hall which can sleep up to 16 guests too.
