Close to the northernmost of the Lakes, under Wythop Woods in the shadow of Skiddaw, this 300-year-old coaching inn, managed by Matthew Wylie, is ‘a very special place, say fans’.

‘Our very special place, where we love to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of the countryside,’ writes a reader this year, signing off with a smiley emoji.

In ‘one of the prettiest villages in south Lakeland’, Richard Rose’s former 18th-century coaching inn is firmly on Cumbria’s culinary map.

By the water’s edge, watching the tide race in at Robert Lyons and Lesley Wheeler’s pub-with-rooms is a thrilling sight.

‘Once we had found our way round the one-way streets of Kirkby Lonsdale, we were shown up to a lovely corner room overlooking an alleyway and the church.’ Praise this year from readers for Iain and Jenny Black’s 400-year-old inn in a market town between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales.

Ideally placed for exploring the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, Paul Spencer's laid-back inn sprawls comfortably on the road to Lupton.

Just beyond the village, Julie and Patrick Beaumé’s 17th-century coaching inn has winsome views over the River Wyre and is appealingly quirky inside.

In the Lyth valley, Becky and Ash Dewar’s 16th-century hostelry is a village pub ‘with a modern twist’.

‘Quite an appearance.’ A well-illuminated display of gin bottles on glass shelves greets visitors to Philip Whiteman’s ‘well-kept, traditional’ inn in a scenic village outside Manchester.