William's Bar @ The Wordsworth Hotel, Ambleside

This is one of the Inn Collection group's more conventional hotels, as I found when the external door to the bar was accidentally locked when I tried to get in, and I entered via the reception and restaurant. The bar area is much as I remember it from my visit 12 years ago, with a stone fireplace against the front wall, dark painted wooden benches arranged in booths around the walls and dark wood bar counter at the back. Simple and basic, with an interesting mix of Wordsworth-related pictures on the walls. Two hand pumps, with just Tirril Grasmere Gold on at the time of my visit. A pretty poor beer as far as I'm concerned, and although the barman struggled with frothing, it turned out to be in good condition while still not being in any way a decent drink. Unless we count the very reasonable price of just £4.70/pint.

Official site of the Wordsworth Hotel - www.thewordsworthhotel.co.uk

Likely to be unchallenged in any longest-pub-name competition, the Dove (for short) is another pub in Grasmere that doesn't quite succeed in feeling like a pub. There are two rooms, one for dining to the right, the room to which the front door admits has the bar to the rear. The first strange thing is that the door opens outwards - not something I can remember coming across in a pub before. The sign outside says "cafe bar", but it's quite clearly aiming for more of a pub feel than that, and yet not quite hitting the mark. It took me a while to work out what it was, as the chairs, tables and benches were pretty much what you'd see in any pub. On a closer look at the chairs, though, they were made of an unusual combination of wood, wicker and leather - perhaps these were what was tilting the feel of the place away from pub and towards cafe. On the bar were two hand pumps, one with local Winster brewery's Old School, which I enjoyed, the other had a Tetleys winter special. There's clearly an enthusiasm for real ale here, with the local Camra newsletter on display, and it's interesting that the name plate outside the door pitches the Dove as the "Coast to Coast walkers bar". Definitely one to try again.