hi just got back from gilestone farm this weekend what a fab place we went as a large party with 5 tents and millions of kids. lovely walk along canal nice clean showers and toilets very friendly owners going back in a fortnight cant wait.
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What was your impression of the site's policy on evening noise. We too like camping with friends and having a few civilised beers around the barbie 'till around midnight. But we also like our sleep and don't want to be disturbed until the dawn chorus begins
While some sites can be over regulated, I was a bit concerned the Gilestone seems to positively welcome stag parties and the like
hi we stayed awake til about 1ish and we were the last in bed but as for noise nuisance didnt hear nothing out of the norm and site was quite full. then in saying that i may go again and it could be horrendous who knows take pot luck and i hope you have a nice time.
Had a fantastic weekend at Pencelli Castle. The awards and reviews are totally justified and, as far as I'm concerned this site sets the standard against which all others can be judged . The facilities are high-class hotel standard .. I kid you not.
As regards noise, the official policy is quite from 10pm till 8am, but in reality things seemed to wind down between 10 and 11:30. The owners do a tour at midnight to make sure everyone is tucked up in bed . I know this because SWMBO and her mate were still nattering away (quietly) on Saturday night and were highly amused at being told to go to bed .
The site had the 'full' signs up when, in my opinion, it could have accomodated another 20 units without any feeling of overcrowding. This left lots of open spaces for the kids to play ball games / frisbee / etc. without encroaching on anyone's space.
And the local pub serves very fine food and drink.
We did visit Gilestone Farm too and had a look around. The camping field is really nice and has a walking route to the villlage with a choice of excellent pubs (well we tried two of them ). The caravan area is not one I would want to stay in. In time it will look good, but at the moment is very sparse and appears more like a storage area than a site. The owners are very friendly and are obviously keen to develop the business so will have to offer something special to compete with Pencelli. I got the impression that they would have a more liberal attitude to noise and wasn't convinced that they'd sort out any problems that might arise as a result.
For me , Pencelli offered the perfect balance of facilities and regulation, although I'd be quite happy to give Gilestone a try too. It'll be interesting to watch for further reviews on here.
Thanks gerr and alison for your advice
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We found the welcome at Gilestone very friendly but as it's a new site things look a bit open to the wind and weather. Pencelli on the other hand is secluded and very pretty with lovely stone buildings. The new facilities that will open at Gilestone next year include look a bit industrial.
There's over 150 pitches at Gilestone and in the summer week-end on which we visited, noisy activity continued into the early hours.
We did go back in October because of a family weddding in the town, but we would have been one of the few touring caravans there. Most of the pitches were taken up by static vans. We half expected tumbleweeds to come rolling by. We went to Brynach instead.A good move as it turned out.