Near the shores of one of the Lake District’s largest lakes lies a cosy little retreat that’s perfect for winter getaways. Jenny Needham shoots off to The Pheasant

The Lake District may be beautiful, but it does suffer from a lot of “weather” and after a week of fairly relentless rain, the first snows of winter were threatening as we arrived at The Pheasant at Bassenthwaite. Forewarned is forearmed, and it’s probably because they don’t want to lose any guests in a snowdrift that the hotel management makes sure to leave a print-out of the day’s weather forecast on the bed.

“A cold, crisp start with sleet showers above 300m, with strong northerly winds once again likely to lead to a severe wind chill,” it said. Which made it all the more welcome that downstairs the communal areas of this lovely Lakeland pub/hotel are so cosy, the perfect antidote to a cold dark night in the North.

First we settled into the residents’ lounge to await a suitable time to down our first drinks of the evening and read our books and newspapers by a roaring fire. The furniture is eclectic – from barley twist kitchen chairs to a huge fireside chair which threatened to envelop me – and there are prints on the wall of local scenes and countryside pastimes. There was Scrabble and piles of Country Life magazines, a copper warming pan… and a couple of patches of damp in the corner. Just like home, really.

The sun well over the yardarm at 6.30pm, we wandered through to the atmospheric bar, and very lively it was too. With a history that goes back to its days as a coaching inn 200 years ago, The Pheasant is a haven for visitors to the region after a day in the fells but it was also obvious that many of those drinking were regulars, people who still see the inn as their local and a place to pop out for a drink.

There is a tale that during the terrible floods of 2009 a local paddled his canoe across the main A66 to the bar, the flood water being no reason to miss out on a pint or two of best bitter. As well as hand-pulled and cask ales, bitters and lagers, The Pheasant bar also has hundreds of malts, some of them aged for over 25 years, and ranging from £3.50 to £28 per measure. Right down to the shiny, faux leather walls, this was everything a traditional Cumbrian pub bar should be.

If you’re staying at The Pheasant, there are two choices of places to eat in the evening – the Fell Restaurant, or The Bistro, which offers the same wide range of traditional and modern Cumbrian dishes in a less formal environment.

Our room for the night was warm and comfortable. The bathroom was spotless, if a little dated, with fantastic water pressure, oodles of scalding hot water and Molton Brown toiletries. In the bedroom, there were nice little touches like home-cooked shortbread and pretty china mugs for your tea, though the kettle was tiny and we had to look hard for somewhere to plug it in. The bed and pillows were comfortable and, having parked the dog in her sleeping bag in the car before our supper, we soon drifted off. (Dogs are welcome in the bar, lounges and a couple of the bedrooms if you let them know in advance.)

Next morning, after a hearty Cumbrian breakfast, we set off from the doorstep to walk it off, up through the pine forest and onto Sale Fell. This was one of Alfred Wainwright's favourite areas. As as he said in his North Western Guide to the fells: “Nothing pleased me more than the shy Wythop Valley. It is so easy to walk, so charming and unspoilt, a little tranquil world apart.” For the more adventurous, the Skiddaw range is only ten minutes away.

Historic places of interest to visit in the area include the 4,000-year-old Castlerigg Stone Circle, the Keswick museum and the wonderful Theatre on the Lake, and literary connections with the poets Southey, Coleridge and Wordsworth also offer days of discovery.

But Sale Fell is a lovely walk, with views of Bassenthwaite Lake and over to snow-capped Skiddaw. The only disconcerting thing was that after puffing our way up one of the steeper sections, a group of fell runners jogged by, none of them spring chickens. They breed them tough in these parts.

  • The Pheasant, Bassenthwaite Lake, Cockermouth, Cumbria, CA13 9YE. T: 017687-76234; E: info@the-pheasant.co.uk; W: the-pheasant.co.uk
  • Taste Christmas Escape. On Saturday, December 12, Taste Christmas, a festival celebrating the very best of Cumbria’s produce, will take over Cockermouth and offer a bustling Christmas market. Guests enjoying The Pheasant’s Taste Christmas Escape can visit the festival and enjoy two nights’ accommodation, breakfast, afternoon tea, dinner one evening, cheeseboard and wine one evening and spa access from £350 for two. Dogs are charged at £10 per night. For further information and to book visit the-pheasant.co.uk