Dog friendly Lake District

[LBF2020]

We're going on holiday to the lakes soon and I wondered if anyone had good recommendations of dog friendly activities, walks, wild swimming and restaurants/pubs. We are staying near Keswick but keen to explore

Hi OP, I live in Cumbria :)

The whole of the Lakes (and Cumbria) is really dog friendly and your dog will pretty much be allowed everywhere except food shops/supermarkets.

There's loads of great walks around Derwentwater and dogs are allowed on the boats too. I would recommend afternoon tea at Lodore Falls Hotel and Spa - it's dog friendly and the food is incredible - on a nice day you can sit outside too. You can get the boat from Keswick, explore the waterfalls, have afternoon tea then catch the boat back again :)

Be really careful with allowing your dog in Derwentwater though as there's often blue-green algae which can be fatal.

I'd take a drive to Ambleside and Grasmere too - the gingerbread shop in Grasmere is incredible and well worth the queues. In Ambleside, go get a picnic from Rattle Ghyll Deli (the food is vegetarian but SO good) and take it to the park, or get fish and chips from the Walnut Fish Bar.

If you want to go to the coast, drive down to Silecroft - miles and miles of deserted beach. You can park at Silecroft, walk along the beach to Haverigg (at low tide) and catch the train back again, or walk along the new England Coastal Path which has just been completed.

Silecroft beach is 100% dog friendly and you can let your dog run with no worries about sheep or cattle, though there will be horses on there at times!

Have an amazing time! :)

It's a very dog friendly place. Most places accept dogs into cafe etc or if not somewhere to sit outside. Go to Porthinscale ( just outside of Keswick ) and visit Lingholm . It's a gorgeous cafe within a large estate ( childhood holiday place of Beatrice Potter ) they have a lovely large patio to sit on if weather good , dogs welcome inside if not. You can then walk through walked garden and down to a sort of beach on Derwent Water.
Also back into Keswick, you can walk towards the theatre which is on the shore of Derwent and there is a nice walk along by there , you can take the dog through Hope Park as well.
Just outside Keswick , along the road to Borrowdale , is a place on the left called Great Wood , park in the National Trust car park and you can have a great walk up and through Great Wood ,it will take about 1- 1.5 hrs.

@fairylightsandwaxmelts

Also from Cumbria ( waves )

Hi @MayBeee

I'm a fake Cumbrian as I've only lived here six years so nowhere near local status yet

Wow! Thank you so much for the recs @fairylightsandwaxmelts & @MayBeee.
That's just what I needed. If you see a bouncy, adolescent goldie causing havoc I promise it isn't me

I live near Ambleside and there are very few places that aren't dog-friendly. My DS works in a local cafe which admits dogs (as most do) and we always ask him who his dog of the day was 😊

As for swimming - just look for some water and get in. I can think of about ten lovely places to swim (tarns, rivers and lakes) within roughly two miles of where I'm sitting.

@fairylightsandwaxmelts

About 12.5 years for us.

We want to take our dog to the lakes but my DH read that they needed to be kept on lead most of the time. Is that right? We’ve got small kids so can’t do long walks on lead to tire her out, normally she roams around us as we plod along.

You only need to keep them on lead around sheep and livestock, otherwise they're fine to run free.

The only issue can be finding places where there aren't any sheep, especially at this time of year as it's lambing season - you do have to be really careful as sometimes fields that never contain sheep, suddenly have sheep and lambs in and the consequences for your dog if they chase can be fatal.

As a local, you learn the places where there aren't any sheep so you know where to (safely) let your dogs off. The beaches are generally very dog-friendly and safe, but they're quite a drive from the main hub of the Lakes.

Most of the larger villages/towns - Windermere, Ambleside, Keswick have got parks where there aren't livestock which are fine for letting dogs off the lead. In more rural places, the sheep are fairly free-range. Where I live they wander around the streets.

I work in a dog friendly shop in the lakes. We love dogs. Especially bouncy ones. Please don't let them wee or poo in the shop. Twice this week I've been on the floor cleaning up poo.
My favourite walk is from Ambleside, under loughrigg up to Rydal caves and round Rydal water and back.

Make sure there is no blue green algea in any of the waters as it can be fatal for dogs.