Popular with serious walkers and climbers, this gabled Edwardian house, built of local slate, is run as a traditional hotel by its 'amenable and helpful' owners, Roy and Janice Smith. 'The food is a strong point,' say visitors this year. The chef, David Jackson, serves a daily-changing four-course modern menu, including a 'much-appreciated' fish course. Typical dishes: salad of herbed smoked chicken, pear and dried fruit chutney; seared tuna, pickled sweet peppers. Arriving visitors are served complimentary tea and coffee in a sunroom. Free Wi-Fi throughout the house is new in 2009; all bedrooms have been given digital TV and DVD-player (a free DVD library is available), and all have bathrobes. Readers again recommend the double-aspect superior rooms: 'Ours was spacious, with glorious views to Cat Bells.' A smaller bedroom had a 'very small bathroom with a tiny basin'. 'Excellent access for the slightly disabled; pretty good, too, if you are in a wheelchair.' The house is in extensive wooded grounds, high above Borrowdale. 'There is a pleasant spot with wooden seats, nice for an evening drink, though it hears a kitchen extractor fan.' A regular bus service passes the entrance. 'Good packed lunches.' (John Barnes, PE Carter, and others)