Dog-friendly Threlkeld

A seventeenth-century inn under Blencathra in Threlkeld, well known locally for its kitchen and with the Blencathra paths immediately behind. Dogs are welcome in the bar areas rather than the restaurant, and the inn keeps a set of dog-friendly bedrooms, including a ground-floor double.

A former coaching inn in the middle of Threlkeld, fifty yards down the road from its sister pub the Horse and Farrier, under the south face of Blencathra. Dogs are allowed in the bar, the restaurant, the beer garden and the bedrooms, which is about as unrestricted as a pub with rooms gets in this valley. It sits directly on the Keswick to Threlkeld railway path and at the foot of the Blease Fell and Hall's Fell routes onto Blencathra.

A community coffee shop in a purpose-built extension to Threlkeld Village Hall on Main Street, run as a community interest company with the profits going back into the hall. Its own listing says walkers, cyclists and dogs are welcome, and it is open 9.30am to 4pm every day except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day, which makes it the one reliable winter stop between Keswick and Penrith. Soups, scones and cakes are made on the premises, and there is a car park behind the hall. It sits at the foot of Blencathra and beside the Keswick to Threlkeld railway path.

Six and a quarter miles and about two and three quarter hours with almost no climb, out along the old Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith trackbed above the river Greta and back by the field paths on the far bank. It starts at the Threlkeld end, where the free village car park by the old quarry is the sensible choice - Keswick's car parks are paid and the walk can equally be done from there. The trackbed is surfaced, traffic-free and level, with eight bridges and two tunnels over and through the gorge, which makes it the best route in the north Lakes for an old dog or a hot day; the river runs alongside for drinking, but the return field paths are grazed and the path is shared with cyclists throughout.