Dog-friendly Ambleside

A pub with rooms in the middle of Ambleside, food served through the day and Stock Ghyll Force ten minutes up the lane. Dogs sit in the designated dog-friendly areas of the pub and restaurant, where water bowls and treats are kept behind the bar, and stay in selected bedrooms for a supplement.

A Robinsons house on Smithy Brow, dating from 1683, with three small bench-seated rooms and real fires. Dogs are welcome throughout and water bowls are always available; there is no kitchen, so this is a drinking pub rather than a dinner stop. The back garden looks out over the rooftops to the fells.

A Greene King house on Church Street in the middle of Ambleside, open 11am to 11pm with food to 9pm, so it covers the gap when the cafes have shut and the restaurants have not opened. The chain publishes a full dog page for this pub: dogs are welcome inside, there is a bowl of water on request and treats behind the bar. The house rules are worth reading before you go, because they require a lead indoors as well as out and no dogs on the furniture. There is a beer garden at the back.

A small former coaching inn up North Road, off the main drag and quieter for it, run under Robinsons of Stockport. The brewery's own page for the pub lists dog friendly among its facilities. It is a drinkers' pub of two low rooms rather than a dining house, open 1pm to 10pm daily, and it is the closest pub to the Sweden Bridge and Wansfell paths out of the north end of town. Space is tight, so a large dog will need placing carefully.

A waterside inn at Waterhead with lawns running down to the head of Windermere, which is the point of it for most dogs. Dogs use the designated dog-friendly areas of the bar and restaurant, with water bowls and treats provided, and can stay in the dog-friendly bedrooms for a nightly supplement.

In the old Kelsick Grammar building on Stock Ghyll Lane, five minutes up from the market place and right at the foot of the path to Stock Ghyll Force. Its own site describes the welcome as being "for friends, families, and four-legged adventurers alike", and the building is one large room with an equally large terrace looking back over the roofs of the town. Breakfast and brunch run to 11.45am and lunch to 3pm, with pizza on Friday and Saturday evenings when booking is needed. It is the obvious stop coming down off Wansfell or the waterfall path.

A long-standing Ambleside kitchen and deli that has fed walkers since the 1980s, strong on special diets. Dogs are welcome inside, but only a limited number of tables are dog-friendly, so telephone ahead and book rather than turning up hopeful.

Three and three quarter miles with a genuine 290 metres of climb in it, so short but not soft: a steep zigzag out of Rothay Park onto the knobbly top of Loughrigg, then a quick drop east to the little beach on Rydal Water. The start is Rothay Park in Ambleside, a five-minute walk from the bus stops, which saves paying for a space; the small Pelter Bridge car park on the far side is an alternative but holds barely twenty cars. Sheep graze the fell top all year so leads there, but the last mile along the river Rothay and the lake shore is safely enclosed, the stepping stones give dogs an easy paddle, and every wall on the route is crossed by a gate.

Six and a half miles and about three and a half hours, on made paths almost the whole way: a steady pull over the top of Loughrigg Fell, then the broad shelf of Loughrigg Terrace above Grasmere before dropping to Rydal Cave and the shore of Rydal Water. It starts in the middle of Ambleside, so the 555 and 599 buses from Windermere station serve it directly; the Rydal Road pay-and-display car park behind the library is the nearest but is full by mid-morning in any decent weather. Loughrigg is common grazing with Herdwicks on it all year, so leads on the open fell, but Rydal Water has shallow shingle beaches where a dog can swim, and the walled sections have gates rather than stiles throughout.

Ambleside's short-legs circuit and the one most people do twice a day from the town. From the Vicarage Road gate beside St Mary's the park runs flat and grassy to the River Rothay, over the arched Miller Bridge and up onto Under Loughrigg, the walled lane on the west bank with Loughrigg Fell rising straight off it. Turn left down the lane to Rothay Bridge and the riverside path takes you back into the park under the beeches. Westmorland and Furness Council's dogs order does not put a lead requirement on the open grass, but it does require leads on the sports pitches and it excludes dogs from the fenced play area, both of which sit in the middle of the park.

Eleven miles and 890 metres of ascent, six hours for most people: a long grassy ridge walk up over Low Pike and High Pike to Fairfield, then back down the Rydal side by Great Rigg and Nab Scar, with no scrambling anywhere but a lot of stone wall to follow. It starts at the Rydal Road car park in Ambleside and finishes on the Rydal road a mile out of town, so most people walk the last stretch back along the pavement. This is the whole day out and a fit dog will manage it, but there is no water at all on the ridge between Low Sweden Bridge and Rydal Beck, sheep are on every part of the horseshoe, and the drop off the Dove Crag and Hart Crag edges is sheer - a dog that runs to a view needs a lead up there.

The Ambleside side of Wansfell, taken by way of the waterfall rather than up from Troutbeck. Stock Ghyll Lane leaves the market place and the falls are a five-minute detour into the wooded gorge, where the path is fenced but the drops beside it are real. Above the woods the route climbs open pasture to the 482m top, and the return runs south-west along the ridge to High Skelghyll and down through Skelghyll Wood past Jenkin Crag, which is the best view of Windermere on the walk. The pasture between the woods and the summit is grazed throughout.

A flat mile at the head of Windermere, useful when the fells are in cloud or the dog is old. From the Waterhead pay-and-display the promenade runs past the steamer piers, then Borrans Park opens out as mown grass down to a shingle shore where dogs can get in the water away from the boat landings. The far end of the field is Galava, the earthwork platform of the Roman fort, from which a path carries on to the mouth of the Rothay and Brathay. Note that the promenade itself is a dogs-on-leads area under the council's order, while the park grass behind it is not.

A guest house on Lake Road between the town centre and Waterhead, with eight of its rooms named as taking dogs: two standard doubles, a standard double or twin, two superior doubles, a standard family room and two junior suites. The supplement is £15 per night per dog, and the room takes one large dog or two small ones. The one hard limit worth knowing before you book is breakfast, where dogs are not admitted at any time. Dogs must be on a lead or carried in all public areas and off all furniture.

A Grade II listed Regency house on the edge of Ambleside with a proper dog washroom for muddy paws and Ruff and Tumble towels to dry them. Dogs stay in selected bedrooms with garden access and may join you for dinner in one designated dining room, on the lead and off the furniture. Beds, bowls, treats and poo bags come with the room.

Rooms above the well-known bakery on Rydal Road, a minute from the centre of Ambleside and handy for the Rothay and Loughrigg. One ground-floor-friendly room takes up to two well-behaved dogs; the other rooms are dog-free, so name the room when you book.

A bed and breakfast on Vicarage Road, right at the Rothay Park gate and two minutes from the market place. Its dogs page is unusually generous: every room takes dogs and there is no dog charge at all, which is rare in this valley. The catch is breakfast, where dogs are not admitted to the dining room, but they will bring breakfast up to your bedroom at no extra cost instead. Dogs must be on a lead everywhere on the premises and off the furniture.

On Lake Road at Waterhead, directly across from the steamer pier and Borrans Park, so the boat to Bowness and a flat lakeside walk are both on the doorstep. The published policy is up to two dogs per room at £15 per dog per night, added as an option during booking. It covers both the inn rooms and the Lakehouse rooms behind. The Waterhead promenade in front is a dogs-on-leads area under the council's order, so keep the lead on between the door and the park.