Tower Bank Arms, Ambleside

Splendid little pub, a stiff walk up the hill from the Windermere ferry, but you also pass the Cuckoo Brow halfway so the two can be handily combined. Anyway, this one adjoins Hill Top, Beatrix Potter's house, so it is doubtless a popular spot in more normal times. However, it is small inside the bar area so if the rear dining room isn't in use then the compact terraced beer garden and a few wooden benches out front also help. Four cask beers on the five handpumps when I visited, with a pair from Hawkshead and two from Cumbrian Ales - Loweswater Gold and Langdale (£3.90).