Meet the owners, Jill and Roger Maher

What made you buy the Courtyard and why you decided to turn it into self-accommodation cottages?
It was all rather accidental! We bought The Loft seven years ago and rented it out. A few months later, the old farmhouse, Rake House came on the market and being curious we asked to view it. After 30 seconds I told Jill we were going to buy it. What sealed it was the stunning view of Helsby Hill from the window of the large farmhouse kitchen. The house was in need of a lot of work but we could see the potential. A few months later we bought The Stables, which had come on the market and again rented it out long term.

One day in January 2007, while climbing up a local mountain, Moel Famau, Jill came out with the idea of turning The Loft into holiday accommodation as it was soon becoming available. Her reasoning was that there was only poor quality accommodation in the area and very little of it too. I had also travelled a lot on business staying in a mixture of good and bad accommodation including some very poor quality pokey hotel rooms perched with a laptop on my knee whilst sitting on a bed strewn with papers and had always complained and said I could do better! Having thought that Jill had gone nuts we carried out some research and the local tourist information team were very helpful and confirmed there was a shortage but offered the advice to take it up market with a high quality standard.

Visit Britain came in October and accredited us with a 5 Star for The Loft, the first such award for a property in the Vale Royal area and a 4 Star for The Stables for which we were extremely delighted.

Not content with all of this Jill had set her sights on No.3 which was the largest property and had been on the market for nearly 18 months. No.3 was to be renamed The Carriage Barn as we had discovered from an old painting that this was where the carriage used for "Sunday best" was stored when the barns were built in 1826.

The Mayor and Mayoress of Vale Royal Borough Council, Councillor Doug and Pam Shingler were coming to officially open The Carriage Barn for us. Just a couple of days before we were delighted to receive from The Mayor The 2008 Tourism Award for our efforts in promoting tourism to our area and for achieving the first 5 Star accredited property. During 2008, The Carriage Barn was also accredited with 5 Stars.

What's your favourite thing about living where you do?
The location to everything is so perfect. We love being in the courtyard because it has a fabulous view of Helsby Hill that looks so different during the seasons of the year. Sometimes when the sun is setting on the sandstone rock you could imagine it being Ayers Rock in Australia! It's so tranquil and peaceful and we just love it. It's great to be able to share it with our many guests who also appreciate it too.

If you could only give your guests three tips on what to do or try while they are here, what would they be?

This is very difficult to get down to just three!

1. Visit the Rows in the beautiful City of Chester, the world famous Chester Zoo and shop till you drop at Cheshire Oaks.

2. Walk up Helsby Hill for stunning views across Cheshire, Liverpool, Snowdonia and The Pennines and then go into Delamere Forest for fabulous
walks and cycling.

3. Visit the medieval market town of Frodsham which dates back to the Domesday Book and sample a real taste of Cheshire's produce with Frodsham reared pork from Coward's the Butchers, Sue Cowards legendary pies, handcrafted beers at Frodsham Brewery and Devonshire Bakery's wonderful confectionery and cakes.

Meet the Maher Cats

As lifelong cat people, we love to have a happy bunch of cats around the place, and we thought you might like to meet our current feline family. When you come to visit he Courtyard, you will no doubt meet Phoebe, Joe or Monty strolling around, keeping an eye on things.

They are very friendly and are terribly curious!

Monty	Phoebe	Joey