Gunpowder Cottage - Sleeps 6

There are holiday homes with easy access to the beach and then there are homes on the beach. This and Powder Keg cottage next door (they are often let together, guests using a little linking gate in the patio garden to move between the two) fall firmly into the latter category.

Fashioned out of the navy’s former gunpowder store (1919), Gunpowder Cottage is a contemporary refurbishment, whose design, including floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors and two balconies, maximises the property’s greatest feature: it’s big sky, oceanic vistas.

Two living spaces front the water. First, on the ground level, is the open plan kitchen diner. With a full complement of shiny modern appliances, this area also has a nice homely feel courtesy of a couple of sofas and a TV. Not that you would necessarily need the TV with such extraordinary views – sailing boats tacking, naval warships riding at anchor, massive cruisers sliding out of Portsmouth harbour – provided through the contemporary French doors which act like a large flat screen TV, showing ‘Harbour Watch’ 24x7.

Of course you can easily step through the doors for some healthy lungfulls of sea air in the patio garden that slopes gently down to the water’s edge.

On the floor above is a living room graced with a lookout balcony, a perfect parapet to stand on with your telescope and spy the splendid ships in Portsmouth’s naval dockyard. If ever you want to move from reality to reality TV, there’s a large flat screen (Freeview loaded) indoors, with a DVD player and music system. 

One of the three double bedrooms is on this floor, the other two (both with en-suite shower rooms) are on the top floor above. The premium double bedroom is at the crow’s nest level, is sea facing and has its own private balcony but all the bedrooms are beautiful in their own right, filled with OKA furniture and John Lewis furnishings.

When you’re done marvelling at the views from within Gunpowder Cottage – we think this process will take some time – it’ll be time to go out and explore. Explosion! – the museum of naval firepower – is just a couple of minutes away and is bound to be an exciting inclement weather option.

If it’s set fair, then why not arrange an outing to allow you to have a view back to your holiday home from a sailing trip, rib ride or power boating experience. We can arrange these trips for you.

If you want to explore further afield, a car is advisable and the property comes with secure off-road parking for two cars.

Unquestionably 5-star, this luxury holiday home is a place to seriously re-charge your depleted batteries and fire up the imagination.

Jump start your vitality at Gunpowder Cottage, situated between an explosive museum and the shifting moods of a panoramic seascape. Reality beats reality TV.