Harber Scar, Horton-in-Ribblesdale

Harber Scar is a 300-year-old stone cottage in Horton-in-Ribblesdale, the Dales village that serves as the start line for the Three Peaks, and it is the kind of place people book precisely because there is nothing to do but walk. For a dog that is close to ideal: a garden to let them out into, footpaths starting more or less at the gate, and Pen-y-ghent and the wider Three Peaks country stretching away in every direction.

The welcome is a real one rather than a tolerated one. Guests arriving with a dog consistently mention treats, a bowl and a towel put out alongside the flapjack and fizz laid on for the humans, and an owner who is easy to deal with. The cottage itself is old, well equipped and warm, and the fire gets mentioned often, which matters more than it sounds when you have come back off the fells with a wet dog.

The garden does most of the work here, though two details temper it. It is shared rather than private to the cottage, and guests travelling with dogs repeatedly flag the gate as the thing to check, since it opens towards the road and has been found swinging loose. Treat it as a garden to supervise rather than one to trust blind. Sheep country makes off-lead walking a judgement call on the surrounding land anyway, so leads are the default once you are out.

The property takes up to two dogs, so a multi-dog household is not ruled out. One local quirk is worth knowing: the pub directly opposite does not take dogs indoors, while another a few minutes' walk away does, which decides where you eat in the evening. Horton-in-Ribblesdale is small, with the nearest proper shops a drive away at Settle. For a couple or a small group walking the Three Peaks, Harber Scar earns its 4.6/5 paw rating comfortably.