The North of England: Lakes, Dales, Moors and the kitchens worth the drive

Northern England's great upland landscapes lie closer together than many visitors expect. The Lake District, the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors are within a couple of hours' drive of one another, with the Peak District to the south and Northumberland to the north, and each has its own character: the Lakes steep, wet and dramatic; the Dales all limestone and drystone walls; the Moors wide and heather-covered; the Peak a mix of gritstone edges and green dales. The region has also become one of the best places in Britain to eat, often in village inns and country houses rather than cities. Choosing a base comes down to the walking you want by day and the dining room you want at night.

The Lake District: choose a lake

England's largest national park has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2017, and the most useful decision is which side of it to stay on. Windermere, the largest natural lake in England, has the most traffic and the most to do; Ullswater, to the north-east, is noticeably quieter.

Gilpin Hotel & Lake House lies east of Windermere, away from the busiest shore, on the Crook road between Kendal and Bowness, and one family has run it for a long time. There are really two places here: the main hotel, in 22 acres of garden and fellside, and Lake House a mile off, a six-bedroom house with a private lake and spa of its own. Many suites come with their own sauna and hot tub, and the tasting menus at SOURCE, a kitchen recognised by Michelin, draw on Cumbrian suppliers, with Gilpin Spice as the looser alternative. Rooms from around £400 a night.

Another Place, The Lake, on Ullswater's western shore, is built around the water. Swimming straight off the shore is encouraged, paddleboards and kayaks are on hand, and there is an indoor pool for days when the Cumbrian weather wins. The tone is informal and family-friendly, with a supervised kids' club in the busiest weeks, and Aira Force and the route up Helvellyn are close by. From around £220.

The Yorkshire Dales

The Dales are gentler than the Lakes and easier walking for most: limestone scars, field barns and broad river valleys.

The Angel at Hetton is a fifteenth-century inn near Skipton, run since 2018 by Michael and Johanna Wignall, with Michael at the stove, and its kitchen has drawn Michelin recognition since 2019. Its sixteen bedrooms are divided between the old inn and Fell View Barn nearby, and the great limestone amphitheatre of Malham Cove is twenty minutes away. From around £240.

Swinton Park Hotel & Spa near Masham has belonged to the Cunliffe-Lister family for generations, and they still live on the estate. Battlements, a round tower and grand panelled rooms give it theatre, but the mood is more house party than hotel. An estate running to thousands of acres of moorland, lakes and park makes room for falconry, fly fishing and long walks, and there is a cookery school and a spa in a converted building. Wensleydale opens up to the north. From around £280.

On the eastern fringe of the Dales, near Ripon, Grantley Hall is the region's most lavish address: a seventeenth-century house restored to an exacting finish, a multi-floor spa and ELITE, a sports-science centre offering cryotherapy, altitude training and recovery programmes. Among its six restaurants, Shaun Rankin at Grantley Hall has drawn Michelin recognition for a menu built on Yorkshire produce, a good deal of it grown in the hotel's own kitchen garden. Fountains Abbey is minutes away. From around £554.

Photographs: Wikimedia Commons contributors — select to enlarge for full credits.

The North York Moors

The Moors are at their most striking in late summer, when the heather turns the high ground purple. The Star Inn at Harome, a thatched inn dating from the fourteenth century, stands in a small village just south of the national park, and Andrew Pern's cooking has kept it among the most garlanded kitchens in Yorkshire for close to three decades. Rebuilt after a serious fire in 2021, it puts guests across the road at Cross House Lodge, where galleried bedrooms, antiques and a long shared table beneath a vaulted ceiling make an eccentric and well-loved arrangement. Helmsley and Rievaulx Abbey lie just to the north. From around £225.

Lancashire, Northumberland and the Peak

The region's kitchens are not confined to the national parks. Northcote, in Lancashire's Ribble Valley, has built a reputation for consistency over three decades that few English restaurants can match, and Lisa Goodwin-Allen's kitchen has held Michelin recognition through a long unbroken run. There is a kitchen garden and a cookery school, and the empty uplands of the Forest of Bowland begin a few miles north. From around £320.

In Northumberland, Matfen Hall is a Grade II* Gothic-revival house in farmland west of Newcastle. The Blacketts lived here from the 1830s until 2022, and new owners have since restored it at considerable expense, adding a spa wing alongside the parkland golf course. Hadrian's Wall is a short drive south, with the Cheviots and the dark skies around Kielder to the north. From around £200.

In the Peak District, The Cavendish Hotel at Baslow stands on Chatsworth estate land, with furnishings and pictures drawn from the great house and a view straight over the park; Chatsworth itself is a walk away, and Stanage Edge and Bakewell are close. From around £230. On the park's southern edge, Wildhive Callow Hall near Ashbourne has reinvented a Victorian hall with boldly decorated bedrooms and elevated woodland cabins and treehouses, with Dovedale's stepping stones and limestone gorge minutes away. From around £240.

Planning through the year

Spring brings lambs in the Dales and waterfalls running hard after the winter rain. Summer is busiest in the Lakes, and the best-known dining rooms are worth booking as early as the bedroom. Late summer is the time for heather on the Moors, while autumn and winter favour the inns and country houses with fires, as well as Northumberland's clear, dark skies. Upland weather changes quickly, particularly in the Lakes, the wettest part of England, so pack for rain whatever the forecast. All prices are indicative starting rates and vary by season.