Dog-friendly Boot and around

The last inn before Hardknott Pass, at the head of Eskdale, with its own bar, cafe and a bragging list for those who have driven the pass. Dogs are welcome whether you are calling in for a drink or staying, and can share a bedroom for five pounds a night; there are dog B&B and dog dinner packages, and the kitchen will lay breakfast in a private room so your dog can join you.

A walkers inn at the entrance to Boot, with a bar known for its whisky shelf and the Eskdale Mill path over the bridge. Dogs are allowed in the bar and the snug only: they are not allowed in the bedrooms at all, which is the opposite of most Eskdale inns and worth knowing before you book.

The third of Boot's three pubs, set back off the lane above Dalegarth station with a large beer garden looking up the Eskdale valley and six changing cask ales, most of them Robinson's with Cumbrian guests. The inn's own site confirms in a reply from the licensee that all of its rooms are dog friendly, which puts eight or nine bedrooms into play in a valley where beds are scarce at weekends. Nothing is published about the bar, conservatory or snug, so ask when you arrive rather than assume. It is five minutes' walk from the terminus of the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway.

The refurbished cafe at Dalegarth for Boot, at the Eskdale end of the fifteen-inch gauge line, serving lunches, snacks and ice cream to walkers coming off Stanley Ghyll and the Esk path. Dogs are allowed on the lower floor but not upstairs, where Wakefield's afternoon tea room is, so the ground-floor seating and the platform are the places to sit. There are toilets and a large pay-and-display car park here, which makes it the practical starting point for most Eskdale walks. Water bowls are set out around the station.

Seven converted farm buildings around a yard at Boot, on a working farm beside the Whillan Beck, with the most detailed published dog policy anywhere in Eskdale. Six of the seven take dogs but the number varies by cottage: two large or three small at the Farmhouse, two at Wastwater, two at Scafell only if they sleep in crates, one large or two small at Hardknott, Wrynose and Stanley Ghyll, and one small dog at Whillan Beck. There is an enclosed shared paddock and a garden by the beck, though dogs are not allowed off the lead in the shared gardens. No dog under a year old is accepted at all.

A four-bedroom National Trust stone cottage sleeping seven, standing on the edge of Eskdale campsite at the foot of the Hardknott pass. Two dogs are welcome. It was a farm labourer's cottage and keeps a Rayburn in the kitchen, which matters when a dog comes back off Harter Fell soaked. The Esk stepping stones, Stanley Ghyll Force and the corpse road to Burnmoor Tarn all start within walking distance, and Boot's three pubs are about fifteen minutes down the lane.

The National Trust's 110-pitch site in eight acres of meadow below the crags at Boot, open from mid-February to the end of December and taking tents, campervans and motorhomes but not caravans. Two dogs are allowed per pitch. Of the accommodation on site only the Basic Pods take dogs; the Standard Pods and the single bell tent do not, which is the detail that catches people out when they book. Blea Tarn and Burnmoor Tarn are both under an hour's walk, and the Esk stepping stones and Stanley Ghyll Force go from the gate.

A bed and breakfast in a stone house below Stanley Ghyll, five minutes from Dalegarth station and the path to the waterfall. Dogs stay for five pounds each a night and are allowed in the first-floor bedrooms and in the guest lounges, which is more generous than most of the valley, and the house will provide a dog bed and dog breakfasts and dinners for a small extra charge. Rates include a full English breakfast and use of an open larder, and there is private parking. The ground-floor rooms are not offered to dog owners.

A small group of self-catering chalets in the woods at Boot, a few minutes from Dalegarth station and the three Eskdale pubs. Only one of them, Larch, takes a dog, and only one dog, described on the owners' own site as needing to be very well behaved and house trained. That single sentence is the whole published policy, so book Larch specifically rather than assuming any chalet will do. It is quiet, wooded and level, which suits an older dog better than the farm yards further up the valley.

The youth hostel a mile east of Boot below Hardknott, with a campsite and Landpods in the grounds as well as hostel rooms. The dog rules here are unusually specific and worth reading before you book: dogs are not allowed in the hostel bedrooms at all, but they can stay in the Landpods for ten pounds a dog a night, and a Landpod booking also lets a dog into the hostel's public rooms except the kitchens. Book the whole building on Exclusive Hire and you can bring up to four dogs, still not in the bedrooms or on the furniture. Assistance dogs are welcome throughout if you tell them at the time of booking.

Seven acres of level camping ground in old Lakeland oak woodland at Nether Wasdale, looking across to the Wast Water Screes and about two miles from the foot of the lake. The site takes a maximum of two dogs per pitch at three pounds each and requires them to be kept on a lead on site. A strict quiet policy applies, with no noise between 11pm and 7am and no loud music at any time, so this is not the place for a dog that barks at every passing torch. The riverside walks along the Irt and the low-level path to the lake foot start from the village.

A riverside inn at Santon Bridge, home of the Biggest Liar in the World competition and a sensible base for Wasdale and Eskdale without driving the passes. Every bedroom is dog-friendly, which is unusual enough to be worth saying, and the rooms are well kept with real coffee and cotton linen.

The National Trust campsite at the head of Wasdale, under Great Gable and about a mile from the Scafell Pike path, open all year and the only legal place in the valley to leave a campervan overnight. Up to two dogs come free of charge, but only on camping pitches, in the tipi or in the basic pods; the other pods are not dog friendly and the site will not accept dogs on those bookings at all. Dogs must be on a lead everywhere on site, exercised away from other campers and are not allowed inside the facilities blocks. Tell them you are bringing a dog when you book, not when you arrive.

The holiday cottage on a working Herdwick farm at the head of Wast Water, with the farm's own access to the lake shore and the Scafell paths starting from the yard. Two well-behaved dogs are allowed by prior arrangement at twenty pounds each for the stay, and prior arrangement means exactly that on a farm that lambs its own Herdwicks. The farm also has three shepherd's huts, for which no dog policy is published, so the cottage is the confirmed option. Sheep are on the land around the buildings all year, so a lead from the door.

The bed and breakfast annexe of the Wasdale Head Inn, standing at the road end below Kirk Fell with Great Gable straight ahead and the Scafell Pike path leaving from the same yard. The inn's own page for Lingmell House states plainly that dogs are welcome here, which it does not say of the main hotel bedrooms or of Ritson's Bar. Rooms are simple walkers' accommodation rather than hotel rooms, which suits a wet dog after Mosedale. Ritson's Bar and Abrahams Restaurant are a few steps away but publish no dog policy, so check at the desk before taking a dog inside.