Dog-friendly The Northern Lakes

A Main Street coaching inn a few doors from the Moot Hall, with a refurbished beer garden at the back that catches the afternoon sun. Dogs are welcome in the bar and lounge all day but not in the restaurant, so an evening meal means eating on the bar side. Nine of the thirteen bedrooms take dogs, and beds and bowls are put out on request, which makes it one of the few places you can walk Skiddaw and be back at your room without moving the car.

A sixteenth-century inn under Melbreak between Loweswater and Crummock Water, brewing its own beer and serving walkers who have come over the fell. Dogs may come into the bar areas but not between 5.30pm and 10pm when food service is at its height, and they are not allowed in the guest bedrooms at all.

A three-roomed free house on Kirkgate with a long list of real ales and bottled beer from around the world, and a CAMRA pub of the season badge to go with it. It states plainly that it is dog friendly, and the pub food is a step above the usual.

The hotel between Buttermere and Crummock Water, and about as good a base for lakeshore walking as the county has. The refitted public bar is fully dog-friendly, with a dog menu and gravy bones behind the bar; the restaurant is not, so residents with dogs take breakfast in the bar at a single 9.30am sitting. All standard rooms and two self-catering apartments take one dog.

A Main Street pub of nearly two hundred years standing, a few doors along from Wordsworth House and at the end of the Watch Hill and Allerdale Ramble routes back into town. Well-behaved dogs are welcomed into the bar area, with water bowls and treats put out; the pub does not extend that to the rest of the building. It is one of the more reliable stops in Cockermouth for a dog on a wet day, most of the town's cafes being counter service with limited seating.

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 farm cafe in Buttermere village with its own paid car park, a few yards from the start of the lake circuit and the Rannerdale path. Its own site says the cafe is dog friendly, and there is a dog seating area indoors rather than a bench outside the door, which is the difference between a usable stop and a wet one in this valley. The parking charge includes use of the toilets, and the car park is a useful backup when the National Trust one is full.

An all-day cafe and evening bistro on Keswick main street, artisan coffee and cake by day, a globally minded menu after dark. It describes itself as a relaxed dog-friendly space, so wet dogs and hungry hikers are treated as the normal trade rather than an inconvenience.

A long-standing tearoom and restaurant in Portinscale, the village across the Derwent from Keswick reached by the suspension footbridge and on the way to the Hawes End and Catbells lanes. It is open all year, has its own car park, and its website states that it is dog friendly and that ramblers and their dogs are welcome. The site does not break that down by indoor and outdoor seating, so ask on the door if the weather is against you.

A small continental cafe bar on St John Street doing Roman-style pizza, good coffee and live music in the corner. Well-behaved dogs are welcome inside; there are no bookings, so arrive early on a wet evening.

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.

The quiet western shore of Derwent Water, on the side with no road, reached by the Keswick Launch to Hawes End jetty. The outward leg runs south along the lake edge through the parkland at Brandelhow, the first ground the National Trust ever bought in the Lake District, past the Low Brandelhow jetty and the bronze hands sculpture to the picnic table at High Brandelhow. The return doubles back on the upper woodland track beneath a line of Douglas firs to the Hawes End Adventure Centre. It is flat, shaded and lined with shallow gravel entries to the water, which makes it one of the better hot-afternoon walks in the northern Lakes.

Five and a half miles and about two and a half hours for 230 metres of climb: the Allerdale Ramble along the Derwent from Seatoller, then the slate spoil zigzag onto Castle Crag, the smallest Wainwright and the best view in Borrowdale. Start at the National Trust Seatoller car park at the foot of Honister, paid, around 60 spaces, and usually the last car park in the valley to fill. The riverside section is enclosed and the Derwent has deep pools a dog can swim in, but the final 80 metres onto the crag climbs loose slate spoil that cuts pads and is genuinely steep, and the summit is a small rocky platform with drops on three sides - many people leave the dog with a companion at the col.

Eight and three quarter miles and 410 metres of climb, four and a half hours: out of Keswick by Portinscale and the west shore to Hawes End, up Skelgill Bank onto Catbells, then down to the Newlands valley and back. Start from the Lakeside car park in Keswick, or take the Keswick Launch to Hawes End - dogs travel for a small fare and it removes three road miles. The ridge is superb for a dog with the head for it, but be honest about the two rock steps low on Skelgill Bank, which are hands-on for people and awkward for a short-legged dog, and the summit ridge is narrow with drops both sides; the fell is grazed throughout and there is no water above the Hawes End gate.

A mile and a half from the free roadside car park at Cinderdale on Crummock Water, out along the fellside below Grasmoor and back along the lake shore. The high leg passes a post-medieval sheepfold rebuilt by the National Trust in the 1990s and a wall stone said to have been used to sharpen iron age swords. The drop to the shore is steep and slippery when wet. On the lakeside leg the path darkens almost to black where it crosses a medieval bloomery, and lumps of iron slag still show on the beach.

Seven and a half miles and around three and a quarter hours with very little climb, following the wilder western shore of Crummock Water out to the shingle spit at Low Ling Crag and returning under Melbreak. It starts in Buttermere village from the National Trust car park; there is also a small free parking area at Lanthwaite Green at the far end if you want to walk it the other way round. The spit itself is the point of the walk for a dog - a curved beach of clean shingle with deep water either side and nobody on it - but the shore path is rough and boggy in places, there is a beck ford that runs knee-deep after rain, and the Scale Bridge fields are grazed with lambs from March.

A stile-free mile and a quarter from the Lakeside car park, along the Derwent Water promenade and back over the low wooded hill of Cockshot Wood, with the whole line of Catbells and Causey Pike across the water. There is an optional 250 yard spur out to Friar's Crag, where the path narrows to under three feet and drops steeply to the lake, so it is worth thinking twice with a strong dog. Around Strandshag Bay you choose between a compacted upper path through a sheep-grazed field and a rougher lower path on the shoreline with boulders and tree roots. It is the one walk in Keswick that works with a wheelchair or a pushchair as well as a dog.

A country house in four hundred acres of woodland above Bassenthwaite Lake, with a spa, a wildlife park next door and a doggy hairdryer for rain-soaked arrivals. Dogs stay in ground-floor rooms opening onto the patio and garden, and may sit with you in the Hall Lounge between 10am and 7pm, but not in the other public rooms or the spa.

A quiet hotel in its own grounds outside Grange, with the Derwentwater shore path and Castle Crag close by. Because the restaurant is open plan, dogs are not allowed in any of the public areas including the bar: this is a bedroom-only welcome, up to two dogs per room, and not every room qualifies.

The old Fish Inn in the middle of Buttermere village, between Buttermere and Crummock Water and at the start of the lake circuit, the Rannerdale ridge and the Scale Force path. The hotel lists dog friendly as one of its headline features, gives a reserved parking space with each room and will lay on a private breakfast at no charge, which is the practical fix for a hotel that does not want dogs in a full dining room. There is a large beer garden and the bar and all-day dining are open to non-residents as well.

A four star hotel on Keswick market square, above the Brossen Steakhouse and the Front Bar. Dogs stay in twenty-five of the thirty-four bedrooms, up to two per room, and are welcome in the bar and lounge; reception hands out dog towels and puts up beds and bowls on request. Dogs are not allowed on the furniture in the rooms and must not be left alone in a room while you are out of the hotel. Parking is a paid extra, which matters in Keswick.

A spa hotel at the crossroads of the A591 and B5291 at the northern end of Bassenthwaite Lake, a mile from the Ouse Bridge shore and within reach of Sale Fell and the Wythop valley. Dogs are only taken in the four designated dog-friendly room types, a maximum of two per room, and the hotel is explicit that the rest of its bedrooms are not suitable for pets, so a dog room has to be booked rather than added on arrival. Some of those rooms open straight onto the private gardens.

A big spa hotel at the head of Derwent Water on the B5289, with the Lodore waterfall itself in the woods directly behind the building and the Derwent Water shore path a couple of hundred yards away. Dogs are taken in most bedrooms and some suites and have two rooms of their own to sit in, the Side Lounge to the right of the entrance and the Conservatory beyond the bar, where they can be with you for any meal. They are shut out of both restaurants and out of the Lake View Bar seating, though they may walk through the bar to reach the Conservatory.

Thirty-eight stones in a field east of Keswick with Blencathra and the Helvellyn range around them, free to visit and open at any reasonable hour. Dogs on leads are welcome; the field is grazed by sheep and the ground churns up after rain.

The round-the-lake launch from the Keswick landing stages, calling at eight jetties including Hawes End and Ashness Gate for the classic lakeshore walks. Well-behaved dogs are welcome on board and travel free of charge, which makes a one-way ticket the easiest way to shorten a long day.

A family-run historic house on the A591 with grounds running down to the shore of Bassenthwaite Lake, opposite the Dodd Wood car park and the Old Sawmill. The interest for a dog is the grounds rather than the house: a walled bee garden, the Poetry Walk through the woods and a path out to the lake shore and St Bega's church. Dogs are welcome in the grounds on a short lead but are kept out of the four adventure playgrounds, and the walks cross working farmland with stock in the fields. It is open April to October only.

England's only true mountain forest, rising steeply above Braithwaite with waymarked walking trails, red squirrels and a visitor centre and cafe. Dogs are allowed on the trails; keep them clear of the mountain-bike descents, which cross the walking routes.