The Rose and Crown, Romaldkirk

Romaldkirk is one of the loveliest villages in the northern dales — stone cottages set around three greens, the old stocks and water pump still in place, and a Saxon-founded church known as the Cathedral of the Dale. Beside it stands the Rose and Crown, an eighteenth-century coaching inn owned by the Robinsons, a family who have farmed Teesdale for four generations. There are fires in the panelled bar, fourteen individually designed bedrooms and a two-AA-rosette dining room built on local suppliers. As a base for High Force, the Pennine Way and the wild upper dale, it is hard to better — and it feels of its place in a way chain hotels never manage.

A characterful coaching inn owned by a four-generation Teesdale farming family, in one of the dales' most beautiful villages — independent, rooted and quietly excellent.

• Romantic Escape
• Food Lovers
• Weekend Escape
• Walkers