Dog-friendly The Eden Valley

Greene King house just north of the city centre, open from ten in the morning, which makes it one of the earlier doors in Carlisle for a dog and a coffee. Its own dog-friendly page states that all are welcome at the Apple Tree, with a water bowl always available and treats from the staff, and sets out no room restriction. Food is the standard chain menu and tables are bookable, which matters at weekends.

A large Greene King food pub on Warwick Road on the east side of the city, with a big garden and the sport on. The pub's own dog-friendly page states that all are welcome at the Beehive, that there is a bowl of water waiting and the odd treat from the staff, with no restriction to particular rooms and no mention of a garden-only rule. It is a straightforward stop after a walk on the Eden rather than anywhere characterful, and the garden is the better bet in summer.

A market street pub in Kirkby Stephen doing pub classics properly, and a useful stop on the Coast to Coast between the Pennines and the Dales. It states that it is dog friendly, and there are rooms upstairs.

The coaching inn on English Street in the middle of Longtown, eight miles from the border at Gretna and the main stop in a town that has very little else with a published dog policy. The inn's own site states that it is dog friendly, that dogs are welcome downstairs, and that a number of dog friendly rooms are available - which is the useful distinction, because the rest of the bedrooms do not take them. Downstairs covers the bar and dining side. Ask for a dog room by name when booking rather than turning up.

On Court Square opposite the citadel towers and the station, so this is the one to know if you have come off a train with a dog. Greene King's own dog-friendly page for the pub states that all are welcome at the Griffin and that a water bowl and the odd treat are kept for dogs, with no room restriction given. Open until midnight, and it gets loud when there is football or rugby on the screens.

Family-run village inn on the green at Caldbeck, nine miles south east of Wigton and the nearest dog-friendly inn with rooms to that end of the county. Well-behaved dogs are welcome, and the room listings are specific: rooms 1 to 5, 8, 9 and 10 are marked pet friendly, while room 11 is not, so it is worth naming the room when you book. There is a £10 charge added for the extra cleaning of the room. The bar and restaurant sit either side of the entrance and the Cumbria Way passes through the village.

The all-day cafe and bar at the front of the Halston on Warwick Road, a couple of minutes from the station and the citadel. Dogs are allowed in here with their owners, which is useful because the Halston's other room, the Penny Blue restaurant, is stated to be for humans only. Leads are required anywhere in the hotel's public areas and grounds. If you are staying, dogs cannot be left in the apartment unaccompanied, so Bartons Yard is where the dog goes while you eat.

A tearoom by the bridge at Pooley Bridge with a garden room over the River Eamont and home baking that justifies the queue. Dogs are welcome in all their spaces, and they cater for most diets besides.

The on-site restaurant and reception at Hidden River, open Tuesday to Sunday and taking bookings, in woodland on the Lyne a few minutes out of Longtown. Dogs are allowed in the reception and restaurant area on leads, with a dog bowl kept for them and a wood burner to dry off in front of after a wet walk. Evening tables book up, so ring ahead rather than arriving with a wet dog and no seat. The courtyard outside is a pet-free zone, so do not tie a dog up there.

The cathedral's cafe occupies the restored Fratry building in the precinct off Castle Street, with seating on the ground floor, upstairs in the Fratry Hall, down in the medieval Undercroft and outside in the close. Dogs are allowed in the Fratry Hall, the Undercroft and the outside seating, but not on the ground floor, so ask which room you are being shown to before you sit down. It is a short lead throughout and one dog per adult, the same rule as the cathedral itself. A water bowl is kept opposite the main cathedral door a few yards away.

Four and a half miles and about an hour and fifty minutes on level ground, from St Lawrence's church at the foot of Boroughgate along the Eden and out through the town's Woodland Walk to the loop above the river. It starts in the middle of Appleby-in-Westmorland, where the Chapel Street and Sands car parks are free for a couple of hours and the Settle-Carlisle line stops in the town. The riverside is the best of it for a dog - broad grassy banks, gravel shallows for a drink, and the woodland stretch enclosed for off-lead running. The riverside meadows are grazed and can hold cattle from May, the Eden runs fast and deep after rain, and the horse fair week in June changes the whole character of the town.

Six and a quarter miles and about three hours for 250 metres of climb, up the broad green track from Askham onto the open limestone commons and out to the Cockpit, a Bronze Age ring on the old Roman road above Ullswater. It starts on the wide green in Askham village, where there is free roadside parking for a couple of dozen cars either side of the green - the only free parking of its kind this close to Ullswater. The going is short dry turf on ancient tracks, easy for a dog and with big open views, but this is unfenced common grazed by sheep and Fell ponies all year, the ground holds nesting curlew and lapwing from April to July when leads are essential, and there is no water at all on the fell.

The city's standard dog circuit: out of the Bitts Park car park on Dacre Road behind the castle, east along the Eden past the bowling greens, over the Memorial suspension bridge into Rickerby Park, a loop of the park to the obelisk and back down the north bank to Eden Bridge. Rickerby Park is grazed, so there is stock on the grass most of the year and the field gates matter more than the map does. The return leg runs west through Bitts Park to the Sheepmount athletics ground, where the Hadrian's Wall Path carries on along the river. Cumberland Council's PSPO puts no lead requirement on either park, but it does exclude dogs from the fenced play area and skate park, which sit right on the line of the walk.

Five and three quarter miles and about two and a half hours on almost flat ground, out of Penrith along the Eamont to the red sandstone keep of Brougham Castle and back by Brougham Hall's craft yards. It starts in Penrith town centre, ten minutes from the station on the West Coast main line, and the town's Sandgate and Bluebell Lane car parks are paid but inexpensive. The riverside path is level, shaded and gives constant water access, and dogs are welcome in the outer grounds of Brougham Hall and in its courtyard cafes; the field paths between are grazed by cattle in summer, there are two narrow squeeze stiles, and a quarter mile of the return uses the verge of a busy lane.

Open parkland off Wigton Road on the west side of the city, laid out over medieval ridge and furrow that still shows in low sun. A network of surfaced paths links the restored Georgian Garden, the Manor grounds with their old trees and rebuilt ha-ha, a hay meadow that is cut once a year, and football pitches. It is a good short-legged or elderly-dog walk: nothing steep, everything surfaced, and a free car park at the community centre. Cumberland Council states no lead requirement and no exclusion here, only the duty to clear up, which carries a fine up to £1,000.

Natural England's reserve on the Solway plain, roughly eight miles from both Carlisle and Wigton on the B5307, and one of the largest patches of woodland, wet heath and rough pasture left in the lowlands here. There are two waymarked trails from the Haverlands Green lay-by, including a two kilometre blue route firm enough for limited mobility. Cattle and sheep graze the reserve all year and there are adders on the heath, both of which are the stated reasons for the lead rule. Ticks are present and Lyme disease occurs in this part of the county, so check the dog over afterwards.

Log cabins with hot tubs in woodland on the River Lyne outside Longtown, and one of the more precisely stated dog policies in north Cumbria. Six cabins take dogs - Snowdrop, Bluebell, Foxglove, Roe Deer, Otterstone and Kingfisher - and there is no charge for them. Dogs sleep downstairs in their own bed, are not allowed upstairs or on the furniture, and the courtyard is a pet-free zone. The cabins sit along the river and the site warns that the Lyne runs fast at times and is not always safe for a dog to swim.

A country house hotel with cottages on Lovelady Lane, in gardens running down to the River Nent a couple of miles east of Alston. The house states that some of its rooms are dog friendly and that the cottages are dog friendly, and asks you to contact them in advance to check availability - which is the point, because not every room takes a dog. No charge is published. The grounds and the Nent are on the doorstep, and the Pennine Way and Isaac's Tea Trail are both within walking distance.

A seventeenth-century inn standing alone on the moor road between Kirkby Stephen and Sedbergh, with its own nature reserve behind it and level access throughout the ground floor, bar and restaurant included. It is a dog-friendly hotel and charges by the stay rather than the night, which suits a long weekend.

Apartment hotel in the old post office building at 20 to 34 Warwick Road, five minutes from the citadel and the station. Dog-friendly apartments exist but are held back for prior request only, so book them by phone or email rather than assuming, and each is set aside for one dog. The charge is £18 per dog per night, settled on arrival. Dogs must be on a lead in the public areas and grounds and cannot be left alone in the apartment, so plan meals around Bartons Yard rather than the Penny Blue restaurant, which does not take dogs.

A private estate house turned nine-bedroom bed and breakfast on the River Eden, on the A69 two miles from junction 43 of the M6, which makes it the obvious dog stopover on the run north to Scotland. The house states plainly that it is dog friendly, provides bowls and towels, and has acres of its own grounds and river bank to walk before breakfast. Their own dog, Rhubarb, is on site. Dinner is served Tuesday to Saturday only since January 2025, so check before arriving late.

Since 25 November 2023 the cathedral has admitted dogs to the main building as well as the grounds, which makes it one of the few indoor wet-weather stops in the city you can take a dog into. A water bowl is kept opposite the main door. The rule is one dog per adult, on a short lead, and it does not extend to services, to the tours that go above ground level, or to the Treasury. Guide, therapy and assistance dogs were already admitted and are unaffected.

The shell of a vast Georgian castle with 130 acres of gardens grown back through the ruins, plus a courtyard cafe and one of the best adventure playgrounds in the north. The estate asks you to bring your dogs on leads, and they can go round the ruins and the gardens with you.

A grass-roofed visitor centre built into a hillside on the edge of Penrith, with independent shops, a deli, a cinema and a large cafe: the wet-day answer for the northern Lakes. Dogs are allowed in the foyer, the deli, all the shops and the lower booths of the cafe, but not in the gallery, the design shop or the childrens area.

Historic vessels working between Glenridding, Howtown, Aira Force and Pooley Bridge, and the neatest way to walk the Ullswater Way one-way. It is a dog-friendly attraction and dogs travel on the boats with you; the Howtown to Glenridding shore path is the classic sailing-and-walking combination.