Brown Trout Golf & Country Inn, Aghadowey

Brown Trout Golf & Country Inn is a traditional inn beside its own golf course in the Bann valley at Aghadowey, between Coleraine and Garvagh, and it handles dogs with the ease of a place that has always had them about. The rooms dog owners are steered towards open straight onto a courtyard, so the first walk of the morning is a few steps rather than a trek through a lobby, and there is open countryside once you are out there.

The policy is unusually clear for an inn of this size. Dogs of any size are welcome, up to two per booking, and cats are accepted as well, which is rare enough to be worth stating. The charge is £30 per pet for the whole stay rather than per night, so a long weekend costs the same as a single night, though two dogs doubles it. Some guests have found £30 steep on top of a room already paid for, so it is better budgeted for than discovered at checkout.

What guests with dogs consistently praise is the staff and the atmosphere. The bar is a proper local, with a mix of residents and villagers, and dog owners describe being made welcome in the areas where people eat and socialise rather than being kept to their room. Families travelling with both children and dogs report the same.

The food is the inn's calling card and mostly lives up to it, though it is not perfectly consistent: there are reports of slow service and a weak breakfast on longer stays, against a first night that was quick and good. Rooms are comfortable rather than large, and the double beds are on the small side.

Best suited to dog owners touring the Causeway coast or playing the golf, who want a sociable bar they can take the dog into and a room they can step out of directly. It earns a 4.5/5 paw rating.