A hybrid bakery, café and craft store nestled alongside the River Brathay. The local store stocks handmade pottery from nearby crafters, a selection of jarred preserves and picnic goodies, while the café serves rhubarb-and-custard brioche and red-berry scones for breakfast, followed by quiche, sandwiches and hearty salad bowls at lunchtime. Grab a seat on the deck and soak up the calming countryside ambience.

Just north of Esthwaite Water, Hawkshead is an enchanting, straight-out-of-a-storybook village. Once an important wool market in medieval times, it’s now owned by the National Trust and was nonetheless home to William Wordsworth, who went to school here, and later Beatrix Potter, who lived at nearby Hill Top House.

If the period details, wallpapers and fringed cushions across its 23 individually styled rooms aren’t enough to convince you to book a night or two at Rothay Manor Hotel, perhaps Rowan, the hotel’s award-winning restaurant, will. Expect seasonal dishes made with local produce, best enjoyed after a day wandering the Lakes.

Forget white-tablecloth theatrics. At Lake Road Kitchen, James Cross lets the ingredients do the talking, drawing on a career spent at Noma, Per Se and La Pergola to create tasting menus that are quietly brilliant rather than showy. You might even find yourself inspecting every hedgerow on tomorrow's walk, wondering what he would've done with it.