‘Well-appointed’ bedrooms, a ‘gem’ of a restaurant and ‘exceptionally helpful’ staff combine at this ‘very comfortable’ countryside hotel.

‘Our favourite small hotel – simply the best run we’ve ever stayed at.’ The Cunliffe family’s ‘great’ country house hotel continues to please Guide readers.

Family owned and family run, the Kennedys’ ‘excellent’ luxury B&B is in an Edwardian country house overlooking Lake Windermere.

Set against a backdrop of mature trees, this ‘lovely’ white-painted Georgian house was called Lakefield when Beatrix Potter first spent a summer here in 1896. She sketched fungi and painted the view we share today, of Esthwaite Water. For the past 14 years, Richard and Margaret Lee have been ‘hospitable’, ‘charming’ owners whose guest house has ‘much to admire’.

‘Gracious’, ‘sincere’ owners Caroline and Jonathan Kaye run their well-liked small hotel with warmth and personality, agree guests in 2016.

Beyond the stone balustrade that encloses the terrace of this substantial Victorian house, the views over sheep-grazed pastures reach towards the Howgills and North Pennines.

Homey and faintly bohemian, the Lowther family’s Grade I listed Elizabethan mansion is surrounded by terraces, topiary and lawns.

In wooded grounds, Jo Bester’s Lakeland hotel near Derwentwater is liked for its ‘good position’, ‘helpful staff’ and ‘tasty food’.