A ‘lovely drive over moors’ leads to this hotel in a North Pennines village built from the stone of a dissolved 12th-century abbey.

The Buchanan family has run this ‘heart-warming’ hotel for two generations, but, bar two short breaks, it has been a local hostelry since the 16th century.

‘Silver, copper, glass, china, pictures, rugs’ and other treasures are ‘trustingly displayed’ at Tim Culkin and Austin Lynch’s ‘wonderfully eccentric B&B’ just off the town square.

Dee and Richard Slade’s hybrid of pub and hotel in the empty reaches of Northumberland again reached for the stars with its unique blend of sustainable hospitality and astronomy.

‘Excellent standards are being maintained,’ confirms a Guide trusty this year, after staying at this village inn with rooms overlooking the Vale of Mowbray.

Developments are afoot at this hotel, centred on a Georgian coach house, ‘in a glorious setting on a huge estate with beautiful walled garden’.

On a loop of the River Coquet, Sandra Thomas's hotel is a welcoming spot for travelling dogs and their two-legged friends.

Facing the leafy Stray’s open parkland, this alluring town-centre hotel is in a seamlessly converted Victorian coach house.

An ideal base for exploring James Herriot country, Robert and Sheila Mitchell’s ‘relaxing, welcoming’ B&B offers great walking and cycling routes, straight from the door – and ‘splendid’ facilities for wet or muddy kit.

Well placed for visits to Durham and its cathedral, Christine Hewitt’s Grade II* listed home is surrounded by extensive gardens among acres of rolling farmland and forest.

A former convent opposite Alnwick Castle has received a heavenly makeover into a luxurious boutique hotel.

Michael and Sasha Ibbotson’s village pub-with-rooms has stone flags, wood panelling and log fires – the legacy of three centuries of hosting visitors following an ancient Celtic trail to York.

International joie de vivre is found in well-travelled Charlotte and David Reilly’s revamped former Victorian school and headmaster’s house.

Travellers heading between London and Sunderland have long stopped at this Georgian inn which skirts the North York moors.

A warm welcome awaits at Denise Carter’s ‘enjoyable, good-value’ B&B at the centre of a ‘lovely’ market town.

‘In a quiet part of the village, overlooking the duck pond,’ Jacquie Pern and Peter Neville’s ‘very comfortable hotel’ finds favour with trusted readers.

Above the dene (ravine with a stream), surrounded by ‘attractive woodland’, sits Peter Candler’s ‘impressive’ 19th-century hotel.

A unique, centuries-old working waterwheel helps generate business for Jane and Neil McNair’s ‘warm and welcoming’ guest house in the Yorkshire Dales national park.

Across a cobbled driveway, Paul and Helen Klein’s ‘lovely, good-value’ 18th-century inn is an ‘utterly authentic’ slice of rural Wensleydale hospitality.

Overlooked by the ruins of Easby Abbey, Karen and John Clarke provide luxurious B&B accommodation in a rustic country house setting.

At this playful, welcoming B&B in a solidly Victorian former rectory, owners Phil and Sarah Bucknall claim to ‘eschew chintz, embrace eclecticism’.