Would-be poets and novelists could gain inspiration from a range of country cottages.

FOR a real whodunnit theme, holidaymakers can stay in a cottage in which Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson fictionally lived while solving their strangest case, The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot.

Today, the little whitewashed house – which overlooks Poldhu Cove in southwest Cornwall – comprises two holiday properties.

Craig-a-bella Mycroft is a one-bedroom annexe (sleeps two) with a week’s rent from £246 to £458 in peak season.

Craig-a-bella Sherlock is a two-bedroom apartment (sleeps four) and costs from £366 for a week, to £768 in July and August. Call 01326-240333, or cornishcottagesonline.com Would-be poets will find inspiration in the Lake District, home to Wordsworth and – for some years – his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who rented Greta Hall, five minutes’ walk from Keswick.

The three-bedroom Coleridge Wing includes the poet’s former study, now the master bedroom with views down the Borrowdale and Newlands valleys. An extraordinary Chinese opium bed is the centerpiece of the room.

The Coleridge Wing at Greta Hall sleeps six, with a week’s rent from £620 to £670.

Call 01228-599960 or see cumbrian-cottages.co.uk Or, you could snuggle up in Treasure Island Cottage, whose name is not a fanciful invention, it is the house in which Robert Louis Stevenson wrote some of his book, when he lived there in 1881.

This traditional stone property, in the pretty village of Braemar, in the Scottish HIghlands, has been converted to provide comfortable accommodation for a couple, or a family with two small children.

The cottage, which costs £355 for seven nights in early June, rising to £395 in July and August, is situated in superb walking country. Call 01835-822277 or see uniquecottages.co.uk