Howtown Hotel, Penrith

The Howtown Hotel is one of the more remote pubs in the Lake District, being four miles from the main road at Pooley Bridge, and on the road to nowhere other than the even more remote cul-de-sac of Martindale – in fact some would hesitate to describe it as a pub, it being more of a hotel with a public bar round the back. This is even more tucked away than others of the type, and suffers from the further disadvantage of having no real ale. However, the bar itself is a delightful throwback, being an old wood-panelled room with a serving hatch to the main hotel bar and its own garden staggering gently up the fellside behind. Theakstons smoothflow bitter is available, and a lager – I didn't enquire about Guinness. There's Fentimans ginger beer, which always goes down a treat if you've arrived here over the fells. Alternative ways of getting here include the walk from Patterdale via Side Farm and the lake shore path around the foot of Place Fell, or the “steamers” (actually diesel-engined passenger boats) that call in here between Glenridding at the head of Ullswater and Pooley Bridge at its foot. Or try arriving by “steamer” from Glenridding and doing the walk to get back, with the reward of a real ale or two in Patterdale at the end.