Dodd (Lorton)

High Swinside Holiday Cottages (opens in new tab) guest house

about 3.9 km from the start, in a straight line

The only property in this cluster that states how to put a large family under one roof: The Farmhouse sleeps 9 in four bedrooms and links to Little Swinside through a lockable connecting door for 11-12, so a Grasmoor-round party that arrives as two households can still eat together. Dogs are taken, there is a 7kw EV charger for the drive back over Whinlatter, and the site sorts its own walk suggestions into four bands (Gentle Strolls, Wonderful Rambles, Intermediate Fells, High Peaks & Horseshoes) - useful when half the party wants Whiteside and half wants the valley.

One of the three cottages started life in the 1800s as housing for the farm's workers; it still has the beamed ceilings, and the owners keep hens and sell guests their eggs.

• Dogs “Three Holiday Cottages sleeping 2, 5, or 9 (2 of the cottages can be connected to sleep 11-12) Dog friendly 7kw EV Charger Good Wi-fi Hot tubs in a superb setting 20-35 mins walk to village shop & pub Fresh free range eggs”
• Family rooms “It sleeps 9 in its four bedrooms. Alternatively it can be linked to Little Swinside to sleep 11 overall (via lockable connecting door).”

Crummockwater Cottages (opens in new tab) guest house

about 1.8 km from the start, in a straight line

Three self-catering cottages 1.82 km from the start, and the only place here whose owner has written down her own judgements rather than a list: go up Melbreak's Nose rather than down it, take Low Fell from Thackthwaite rather than straight up the fence line, walk Loweswater out and back on the far side using the old coffin route. For this start in particular, the fells she names in the view from the front of the house open with Whiteside, Grassmoor and Whiteless Pike - the three summits of the Grasmoor round - though she describes them as a view from the door, not as a walk she writes up. Her own walk pages cover Buttermere, Crummock, Loweswater, Low Fell, Melbreak, Blake Fell and three waterfalls.

The cottages are the converted barn and stables of a 16th-century manor house, reached through a carriage arch with 1797 cut into it.

Bridge Hotel (opens in new tab) hotel

about 4.2 km from the start, in a straight line

The largest bed stock in the radius and the only hotel here that publishes both a restaurant and a dog policy - 21 en-suite bedrooms plus 6 self-catering apartments in Buttermere village, with an EV point in the car park. Two things a family should know before booking rather than after: the bedrooms are deliberately unplugged, with no television, no radio and no mobile signal, and the hotel publishes a late-January closure. There is no email address and no contact form anywhere on the cached site, so the only route in is the phone or the booking engine.

It sells the absence of a signal as the point: the bedrooms have no television, no radio and no mobile reception.

• Dogs “A true dog-friendly hotel in the Lake District”
• Evening meal “Exceptionally friendly and professional service, homemade food, carefully selected local real ales with our staff who naturally go the extra mile to ensure your needs meet your expectations.”