With its indulgent bedrooms, Michelin-starred dining, attentive staff and guaranteed privacy, many look to Gilpin as the ultimate in Lakeland luxury.

With its towers and battlements this Victorian-folly castle, in 15 acres of grounds, looks imposing yet is ‘a wonderful place to relax, kick back and take it easy’.

To find a gem in a quiet corner of the visitor-thronged Lake District is not easy, but this smart village inn in the lovely Lyth valley is, as one reader reports, ‘always a favourite’.

This ‘splendid old inn’, in a market town between the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, deftly mixes historic charm – beams, crackling fires and exposed stonework – with an updated, modern touch.

Refreshingly different from some of the more traditional Lake District offerings, this contemporary hotel is in a beautiful setting overlooking Grasmere.

In landscaped grounds, Jamie and Jenna Shail’s Grade II listed manor house pleases, inside and out.

Overlooking the Levens estuary, watch the tide race in from Robert Lyons and Lesley Wheeler’s traditional pub-with-rooms – it’s a thrilling sight that harks centuries back to when the inn was a stopover for coaches and horses before they crossed the sands to Lancaster.

By a stone arched bridge, this ‘imposing edifice’ is in an idyllic waterside spot, surrounded by gardens that sweep down to the River Leven.

A ‘convivial’ country pub with cosy rooms and ‘very good’ food, the Lowther family’s restored 18th-century coaching inn near Ullswater retains its rural roots.

In postcard-pretty Grasmere, this family-run Victorian country house hotel 'ticks all the boxes on accommodation, hospitality, food and reasonable prices'.

Between the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales national parks, in the quiet Eden valley, this country house B&B offers an elegant retreat against a background of fell views.

In a quiet corner of Cumbria, close to Hadrian’s Wall, this long-established hotel exudes the traditional comforts of a country house but with a modern elegance.

‘This hotel ranks amongst the very best that we have stayed in,’ says a reader about this Victorian Gothic mansion with its cool, relaxed style, vast kitchen garden and inspired culinary creations.