Ravencar Farm Bed and Breakfast

Ravencar Farm is a working smallholding on the edge of Marsh Lane in north-east Derbyshire, ten minutes from Chesterfield and within easy reach of the northern Peak District. It is the rare bed and breakfast where a dog is treated as a guest rather than a condition of booking. Arrivals are met with tea and home-made cake, dogs get treats of their own, and a sausage for the dog at breakfast is close to standard.

Dogs are specifically listed as allowed. No pet fee, weight limit or breed restriction is published, so agree what you need directly when you book.

Almost every dog owner who writes about the place ends up writing about the owner. She keeps a list of nearby places to eat and a nearby dog walk to hand, recommends spots around the Peak District that guests report were well judged, and takes the trouble to make a dog feel as looked-after as the people. Rooms come in for the same praise: spotless, warm, with a fridge and fresh milk, feather duvets and a proper cooked breakfast alongside home-made granola.

Several of the ground-floor rooms have their own outside entrance, and this is the detail dog owners single out most often. No lobby, no stairs, no negotiating a corridor at six in the morning. There is a garden area, horses in the paddock, good pubs in the village for dinner and grassy walking straight from the door, with Eckington, Holmesfield and the northern edge of the Peak all short drives away.

Two small caveats. Rooms nearer the road can pick up traffic noise, and the pricing sits at the top end for the location, which one or two guests have noted. Neither has stopped dog owners rating it as highly as they do, and it earns a 4.8/5 paw rating. Best suited to couples, solo travellers and anyone touring the Peak District with a dog who would rather have a good breakfast and a warm welcome than the anonymity of a chain.