Wooded hillside forms a pleasing backdrop to this ‘comfortable country hotel’ in an ‘optimal position’ for exploring the northern Lakes.

‘Warm and friendly’, and ‘good value’ to boot, Louise Dinnes’s Victorian pub-with-rooms stands in a conservation village surrounded by a national parkland of windswept fells.

‘Good beer’, ‘excellent food’, ‘nice bedrooms’ and a ‘relaxing ambience’ win admirers at Richard Rose’s ‘fantastic’ 300-year-old inn in the bucolic Lyth valley.

A meander from the River Lune, this 17th-century inn by the old churchyard in the historic market town reserves a special welcome for walkers and their dogs.

On the banks of the River Wyre, Julie and Patrick Beaumé’s refurbished 17th-century coaching inn surprises with its voguish bedrooms and imaginative, French-inflected cooking.

‘A lively spot’, this ‘friendly’ stone-built pub-with-rooms (Thwaites Inns of Character) sits in a rural village in the Ribble valley.

Laid-back and friendly, with a side of sweet potato fries, this refurbished 18th-century roadside inn is liked for its superior pub grub and handsome accommodation.

‘Clearly popular’, Philip Whiteman’s 18th-century coaching inn, in a village 30 minutes’ drive from Manchester, attracts locals and visitors who crowd the ‘friendly’ bar and restaurant.

Becky and Ash Dewar’s popular village pub ‘with a modern twist’ is in a 16th-century coaching inn in the Lyth valley.