Mile House Barn Bed & Breakfast

Mile House Barn is a converted barn bed and breakfast at Worleston, in the Cheshire countryside a few minutes outside Nantwich. It sits down a long private driveway with fields around it, so there is quiet space on all sides and none of the shared corridors or lifts that turn a dog's stay into an exercise in logistics.

Dogs stay free here, at any size, with no weight or breed cap, and guests who have brought their own consistently describe a warm reception rather than grudging permission. Several have arrived with two dogs, a pair of spaniels among them, without any fuss being made.

A few practical points before you book. Guest rooms are reached by an oak staircase, so an older or larger dog who would rather not climb means asking about ground-floor availability in advance. There is no dedicated dog run or exercise area on site, the long driveway is unlit, and there is no footpath along the main road, so walking into town with a dog is not really practical and you will want the car for anything beyond a turn around the grounds.

The hosts keep a friendly resident dog who features in a great many reviews and is plainly a draw for most visitors. He is not universally easy with other dogs, though: there is an account of him turning repeatedly unfriendly towards a guest's own dog over the course of a stay, which the owners involved found distressing. That is one report against a long run of warm ones, but it is worth flagging your dog when you book so the two can be given room, particularly around the kitchen, which doubles as the breakfast room and where not every guest is pleased to find dogs at all.

Breakfast itself gets a lot of praise, with eggs from the owners' own chickens and home-baked bread. Mile House Barn suits couples and solo travellers touring the Nantwich area with a well-behaved dog, who are happy to drive to their walks and value a quiet, homely stop over hotel-style facilities.