Dog-friendly stays in Boot

Seven converted farm buildings around a yard at Boot, on a working farm beside the Whillan Beck, with the most detailed published dog policy anywhere in Eskdale. Six of the seven take dogs but the number varies by cottage: two large or three small at the Farmhouse, two at Wastwater, two at Scafell only if they sleep in crates, one large or two small at Hardknott, Wrynose and Stanley Ghyll, and one small dog at Whillan Beck. There is an enclosed shared paddock and a garden by the beck, though dogs are not allowed off the lead in the shared gardens. No dog under a year old is accepted at all.

A four-bedroom National Trust stone cottage sleeping seven, standing on the edge of Eskdale campsite at the foot of the Hardknott pass. Two dogs are welcome. It was a farm labourer's cottage and keeps a Rayburn in the kitchen, which matters when a dog comes back off Harter Fell soaked. The Esk stepping stones, Stanley Ghyll Force and the corpse road to Burnmoor Tarn all start within walking distance, and Boot's three pubs are about fifteen minutes down the lane.

The National Trust's 110-pitch site in eight acres of meadow below the crags at Boot, open from mid-February to the end of December and taking tents, campervans and motorhomes but not caravans. Two dogs are allowed per pitch. Of the accommodation on site only the Basic Pods take dogs; the Standard Pods and the single bell tent do not, which is the detail that catches people out when they book. Blea Tarn and Burnmoor Tarn are both under an hour's walk, and the Esk stepping stones and Stanley Ghyll Force go from the gate.

A bed and breakfast in a stone house below Stanley Ghyll, five minutes from Dalegarth station and the path to the waterfall. Dogs stay for five pounds each a night and are allowed in the first-floor bedrooms and in the guest lounges, which is more generous than most of the valley, and the house will provide a dog bed and dog breakfasts and dinners for a small extra charge. Rates include a full English breakfast and use of an open larder, and there is private parking. The ground-floor rooms are not offered to dog owners.

A small group of self-catering chalets in the woods at Boot, a few minutes from Dalegarth station and the three Eskdale pubs. Only one of them, Larch, takes a dog, and only one dog, described on the owners' own site as needing to be very well behaved and house trained. That single sentence is the whole published policy, so book Larch specifically rather than assuming any chalet will do. It is quiet, wooded and level, which suits an older dog better than the farm yards further up the valley.

The youth hostel a mile east of Boot below Hardknott, with a campsite and Landpods in the grounds as well as hostel rooms. The dog rules here are unusually specific and worth reading before you book: dogs are not allowed in the hostel bedrooms at all, but they can stay in the Landpods for ten pounds a dog a night, and a Landpod booking also lets a dog into the hostel's public rooms except the kitchens. Book the whole building on Exclusive Hire and you can bring up to four dogs, still not in the bedrooms or on the furniture. Assistance dogs are welcome throughout if you tell them at the time of booking.