Hope and Anchor, Wirksworth

The Hope and Anchor is a proper Derbyshire pub with rooms, and dogs are part of the furniture rather than a tolerated extra. It sits on the main road through Wirksworth, a former lead-mining town on the southern edge of the Peak District, and the bar is the kind of small, unfussy room where a dog on a lead quickly ends up being fussed over by half the regulars.

Dog owners consistently describe the welcome as warm and unforced. Staff and locals alike make time for visiting dogs, there are treats for them behind the bar, and at least one party has brought two along without any difficulty. There is a dedicated dog walking area in a meadow about five minutes on foot from the door, which matters at a roadside pub where you would not want to be walking a dog along the verge. Breakfast is large and hot, evening food runs to tapas, and the cask ale and whisky selection is a genuine draw in its own right.

Two things are worth knowing before you book. Bringing a dog costs £20 for the stay rather than per night, so it is a flat addition whether you are here one night or three. Not every room takes dogs - the Budworth luxury king suite is the exception - and there has been a report of bedding in a dog-friendly room still smelling faintly of dog overnight, so it is worth asking how rooms are turned around between pet stays, or requesting a dog-free room if you are sensitive to it. The pub asks you to say when you book that you are bringing a dog; there has been the occasional muddle at check-in over whether a dog could go up to the room, and flagging it up front avoids that.

The rooms themselves are deliberately dark and industrial in style, comfortable and spotless, with good en-suite showers. Parking is right outside but managed and chargeable, and tickets do get issued. For dog owners who want a walkable Peak District base with good beer and a bar where their dog is genuinely welcome downstairs, the Hope and Anchor earns its 4.6/5 paw rating.