Dog-friendly The Central Lakes

A Robinsons house on Queens Square in the middle of Bowness, a couple of minutes back from the bay and open from 11am every day, later than most on Fridays and Saturdays. The brewery's own page for the pub lists it as dog friendly. It is a straightforward town local rather than a destination dining room, which is why it works when the lakeside places are full of coach parties. Handy at the end of the promenade and Cockshott Point circuit.

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 pub with rooms above the bay at Bowness, with a beer garden that looks across Windermere to the Langdale Pikes. Dogs use the designated dog-friendly areas of the pub, restaurant and garden, and stay in selected bedrooms for a nightly supplement.

A four-hundred-year-old coaching inn at the foot of the Old Man, brewing its own Coniston ales in the yard behind. Children and dogs are welcome in the bar and dining rooms with no booking needed, and two ground-floor cottage rooms next door are the ones set aside for guests bringing dogs.

A refitted inn in its own grounds with a courtyard garden looking down Coniston Water. Dogs are welcome for dining in the designated areas and in the garden courtyard, and stay in designated bedrooms for a nightly supplement.

A narrow craft beer bar on Victoria Street in Windermere town, a couple of minutes from the station and clad inside with beer crates and bottle labels. Its own site bills it as a "Dog & Child Friendly Venue" and advertises free snack treats for dogs, so the welcome is to the inside of the bar rather than a yard. It is open 11am to 11pm daily with food from 1pm to 9pm, and the room is small enough that a large dog will be in the way at Friday teatime. Useful if you have come off School Knott or Orrest Head and want somewhere in the town rather than down at Bowness.

An Asian barbecue restaurant and bar on three floors at 18 Ash Street, a minute up from the Bowness piers. Its own dog page puts the welcome on the ground floor: "Our ground-floor bar is a laid-back spot where you can eat, drink, and relax with your pup", with dogs welcome during all daytime hours, water bowls and treats. Small dogs are also taken upstairs in the first-floor restaurant. They suggest coming before 1pm or after 4pm at weekends if your dog is nervous, which is honest advice for a busy three-storey building.

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 family-run cafe and bistro on Yewdale Road in the middle of Coniston, using Herdwick lamb and beef from Yew Tree Farm up the valley. Its own site is explicit that the welcome is indoors: water down, a warm room, frozen pup cups in the freezer and a dog wall of fame on the wall, with picnic benches outside under the fell for dry days. That warm room matters on this side of the valley, where the Old Man throws weather down onto the village all afternoon. Open every day, 9am to 5pm.

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.

The restaurant at Windermere Marina Village, south of Bowness past Ferry Nab, looking out over the moorings. Its own page states that there are "spacious indoor and outdoor seating areas where dogs are welcome", with fresh water bowls and complimentary dog treats, and it makes a point of taking muddy paws. Because it is inside as well as out, it is one of the few options round Bowness that still works in weather. The walk in along Ferry Nab Road is a dogs-on-leads area under the council's order.

The Bowness sister of the Coniston cafe, on Glebe Road right on the lake front between the piers and Cockshott Point. The company's own site states the Bowness policy without qualification as "Dogs welcome", where the Coniston entry on the same page limits dogs to the terrace, so this is the more useful of the two if the weather has turned. It opens 9.30am to 4.30pm daily with hot food until 4pm. It sits directly on the Glebe, which is the promenade section where the council's dogs order requires a lead.

A steep short pull out of Town End to a small dammed tarn on the shoulder of Heron Pike, with Grasmere and Rydal Water both laid out below. The climb goes up through the birches behind Dove Cottage and past the old Greenhead Gill workings, all on a made path but relentless for the first half hour. The tarn is shallow and reedy and the ground beside it is boggy after rain. The descent turns down Greenhead Gill and comes out on the A591 by the Swan, so watch the last few hundred yards for traffic.

Two miles on a gravelled all-ability path right round the tarn, fifty minutes at a stroll and the flattest famous view in the Lakes. The National Trust car park is the only sensible start; it is paid, it holds around 130 cars and it is full by half past ten on any fine day, with a mobility vehicle available in summer for those who need it. The surface suits old and short-legged dogs, the tarn has several easy shingle entries for a swim, but Belted Galloways and Herdwicks graze the surrounding enclosures and the path is shared with pushchairs and wheelchairs the whole way, so this is a lead walk from car park to car park.

The lakeside circuit south out of Bowness Bay, and the only easy way to get a dog to the water's edge in the middle of town without crossing the launch slipways. From the Glebe Road car park the promenade runs north to the piers, then back south across the Glebe to the point at Cockshott, where the shore path swings round to face Belle Isle. Ferry Nab and the Windermere Ferry slip close the loop, and the return leg is along Ferry Nab Road. Two of the three named sections carry a lead requirement under the council's dogs order, so treat this as an on-lead walk throughout.

The flat village loop in Grasmere, done on the days when Easedale is under cloud. From the Broadgate Meadow car park the lane runs down to St Oswald's churchyard, where Wordsworth is buried, and the riverside path follows the Rothay upstream past the gingerbread shop end of the village. At Goody Bridge you cross and come back along Easedale Road to Broadgate. The council's dogs order excludes dogs from the Broadgate Meadow play area and the High Fieldside play area, both in the village, but puts no lead requirement on the meadow or the riverside path.

The high point of Grizedale Forest at 314m, and the one summit in the central Lakes you can reach entirely on forest track and waymarked path with no sheep on it. From the visitor centre the route climbs west on the Silurian Way, then turns up a stony path through the plantation to a bare rock top with the Coniston fells laid out west and Windermere east. Forestry England's own dog code asks only that dogs stay close and in sight and that you use a lead if the dog does not always come back. The return drops north-east through the sculpture trail ground back to the centre.

Ten miles and close to five hours up the quiet western shore of Windermere, through the Claife plantations to Latterbarrow's cairn and back past Wray Castle - forest track for much of it, so it drains well and works in winter. Start at the Ferry House on the west bank, reached by the Windermere car ferry from Bowness, which takes dogs at no extra charge and saves the long drive round by Newby Bridge. Almost all of it is enclosed woodland and track where a dog can be off the lead, there is lake access at High Wray Bay for a swim, but the two fields below Latterbarrow are grazed and the forest is worked - keep to the lead if machinery is out.

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 Victorian house on Lake Road on the hill above Bowness, ten minutes down to the bay and the piers. Its own site states plainly that well-behaved dogs are welcome in its pet-friendly rooms, and equally plainly that those rooms can only be booked by telephone rather than through the website. That is the detail worth knowing: an online booking will not get you a dog room. No dog charge is published and the site says nothing about the bar and lounge.

A large lakeshore resort between Windermere and Ambleside, with its own marina and watersports centre. Dogs are welcome nearly everywhere on the estate: the exceptions are the Winander Club, both hotel restaurants and the spa, so plan meals around a room service tray or the bar.

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.

The inn on the green at Elterwater, with the Cumbria Way and the Langdale valley starting from the door. Dogs stay in the bedrooms free of charge, on the clear condition that they stay off the beds.

John Ruskin's house on the east shore of Coniston Water, reached by the narrow lane round the head of the lake or by the Coniston Launch from the village. Its visitor page states that dogs are welcome on a lead in the gardens and in the Terrace Cafe, which is the practical point: the eight gardens run to 250 acres of hillside with woodland trails above and level paths below, and the cafe looks straight across the water to the Old Man. The house itself is not covered by that welcome. Parking is free for visitors and the cafe is open 10am to 4pm daily.

Eight thousand acres of forest between Coniston Water and Windermere, threaded with waymarked trails, sculpture and easy-access paths from the visitor centre. Dogs are allowed on the trails and there is a cafe and shop at the centre; the forest is worked, so expect timber lorries on the roads.

The scheduled boats out of Bowness Pier, running north to Waterhead at Ambleside and south to Lakeside, and the single most useful thing on this lake if you want a linear walk with a dog. Their published policy is that well-behaved dogs travel free on every cruise and on the self-drive boats, with no need to add the dog to an online booking. A lead is required for the whole journey and dogs must stay off the seats. The Ambleside sailing lets you walk one shore and ride back rather than retracing the A591.