The Watermill Inn & Brewery

The Watermill Inn and Brewery sits in Ings, a small village on the road between Kendal and Windermere, and it is one of the more wholeheartedly dog-friendly places to stay in the southern Lakes. It is a traditional pub with rooms and its own brewery, and the tone with dogs goes well beyond tolerance: staff hand out treats, learn the dog's name over a couple of nights, and plenty of other guests arrive with dogs of their own. Owners bringing anxious or newly rehomed dogs on a first trip away single out how easily everyone made room for them.

The pet terms are not published on the property's booking listing, and that is where the friction sits. Guests travelling with dogs consistently report a charge of about £10 per dog per night, collected on arrival rather than taken at booking, and some arrived expecting no pet charge at all. Parties with two dogs find the per-dog, per-night structure steep for what it is. Ask for the current figure in writing when you book, and check where dogs may go while you are there: accounts of the restaurant conflict, with some guests told dogs are welcome at breakfast but not in the evening, and others finding dogs seated in the dining room at dinner. It is worth a phone call if eating with your dog is the point of the trip.

The rest of the appeal is straightforward. The kitchen and the home-brewed ales are the reason most people come back, breakfast is well liked, and parking is free and on site. Footpaths start from the door, with cross-country routes and a surfaced walk over to Crook, and Windermere, Bowness and Kendal are all a short drive away.

The rooms are the weak point. This is an old inn and the single rooms are genuinely small - room 3 is named again and again as the tightest of them. The building sits close to the main road, so traffic noise carries, and rooms above the outdoor seating area or beneath the stairs can be loud in the evening. Residual dog smell in the bedrooms has been mentioned too, and there is nowhere to store or charge a mobility scooter.

It suits walkers and couples who want a proper Lakeland pub with good beer, a warm welcome for their dog and easy access to the fells, and who will take a small room in exchange for the atmosphere. It is less of a fit for anyone travelling with two or more dogs on a tight budget, or for anyone who needs a quiet room and a firm answer on where dogs may eat. The Watermill Inn earns a 4.4/5 paw rating.