Cuckoo Brow Inn

Whether you turn up with muddy boots or in your Sunday best, with wet dogs or children, you will be greeted with a warm welcome at this jolly country inn between Windermere and Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top home. ‘Bursting with character and rustic charm’ it offers robust food, a relaxed atmosphere and toasty log-burners. The long bar-dining area, with central log-burner (useful for drying boots), has cheery scrubbed tables and spindle-back chairs, and there’s a snug/games room in the adjoining former stables. Meals are ‘outstanding’ with ‘a good choice of fish, meat and vegetarian dishes’ that includes pub classics with a twist, such as wild boar sausages with mustard mash or vegetarian risotto with goats cheese pesto. ‘Quiet and peaceful’ bedrooms, in the main pub and an extension above the old stables, have a simple, unfussy style. Family rooms come with bunk beds. Spacious bathrooms, most with baths as well as showers, have ‘plenty of hot water with good pressure’. ‘Freshly cooked’ breakfast will set you up for a day’s walking. There is special praise for the ‘warm and friendly owners who were quick to engage with our children’. (MJ)