Dog-friendly Troutbeck

A whitewashed hillside inn above Troutbeck with the Garburn road behind it, under owners who describe themselves as incredibly pet friendly and mean it. Dogs are welcome throughout, up to two can stay in a bedroom, and there is a secure dog field three minutes away that you can book by the hour so they can run without sheep.

The seventeenth-century coaching inn at Town Head on the A592, high on the east side of the Troutbeck valley with the Kirkstone road climbing past the door. Its own site describes the place as "a cosy, dog-friendly haven" with "a warm Lakeland welcome for visitors both two-legged and four-legged", dog-friendly bedrooms, a dog menu and a wash station. It is the natural finish for Wansfell Pike or the Garburn Pass, and the walk down to Troutbeck Bridge is all lane. No dog charge is published, so ring before booking a room.

The old packhorse road over Garburn from Troutbeck to Kentmere, taken as far as the pass and then north up the broad ridge to Yoke at 706m, the first top of the Kentmere horseshoe. The Garburn road is a rebuilt stone track, hard going underfoot but never in doubt, and the ridge above it is grassy and wide. The return drops west off Yoke to the Hagg Gill bridleway and back down the valley past Troutbeck Park. Sheep are on every yard of this from the first gate, and the Garburn track is also used by mountain bikes at speed.

The long quiet valley walk behind Troutbeck, up the bridleway along Hagg Gill under the Yoke ridge, round the head of the dale and back down the west side of the Tongue by the Trout Beck. The Tongue itself is the whaleback hill of 364m in the middle of the valley and can be added from the north end. Troutbeck Park is a working sheep farm and the whole route crosses grazed in-bye and fell, with lambs on the valley floor from March. The bridleway is wet underfoot for most of its length even in a dry spell.

Six and three quarter miles and 550 metres of ascent, close to four hours: the old walled lanes above Troutbeck, then a steep grassy pull to the Pike for the best single view down Windermere, returning by Nanny Lane. It starts at Jesus Church in Troutbeck, where the roadside space is limited to a handful of cars - the village car park by the institute is the better bet, or the 508 bus from Windermere stops on the main road below. The lanes are walled and enclosed, which makes the first two miles easy going for a dog, but the summit slope is open grazed fell with sheep on it all year and the descent is loose and stony, hard on soft pads in dry weather.