Dog-friendly pubs in Ambleside

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 Robinsons house on Smithy Brow, dating from 1683, with three small bench-seated rooms and real fires. Dogs are welcome throughout and water bowls are always available; there is no kitchen, so this is a drinking pub rather than a dinner stop. The back garden looks out over the rooftops to the fells.

A Greene King house on Church Street in the middle of Ambleside, open 11am to 11pm with food to 9pm, so it covers the gap when the cafes have shut and the restaurants have not opened. The chain publishes a full dog page for this pub: dogs are welcome inside, there is a bowl of water on request and treats behind the bar. The house rules are worth reading before you go, because they require a lead indoors as well as out and no dogs on the furniture. There is a beer garden at the back.

A small former coaching inn up North Road, off the main drag and quieter for it, run under Robinsons of Stockport. The brewery's own page for the pub lists dog friendly among its facilities. It is a drinkers' pub of two low rooms rather than a dining house, open 1pm to 10pm daily, and it is the closest pub to the Sweden Bridge and Wansfell paths out of the north end of town. Space is tight, so a large dog will need placing carefully.

A waterside inn at Waterhead with lawns running down to the head of Windermere, which is the point of it for most dogs. Dogs use the designated dog-friendly areas of the bar and restaurant, with water bowls and treats provided, and can stay in the dog-friendly bedrooms for a nightly supplement.