Accommodation can be hard to come by in summer - book well in advance, especially for popular central places such as the Harwood , Red Lion Square (tel 015394/35248, ; A?50-60). Banerigg Guest House (tel 015394/35204; no smoking; no credit cards; A?50-60), is a lakeside property fifteen minutes walk out on the Ambleside road (A591); or there's Titteringdales Guesthouse , on Pye Lane (tel 015394/35439, ; A?40-50), to the north, just off the A591. The Red Lion in central Red Lion Square (tel 015394/35456; A?90-110) is a sympathetically styled eighteenth-century coaching inn. Top of the pile is White Moss House (tel 015394/35295, ; A?150-200, with dinner; closed Dec & Jan), a house once owned by Wordsworth, a mile south on the A591, at the northern end of Rydal Water. Lesser budgets are required for How Foot Lodge , at Town End (tel 015394/35366; A?50-60; closed Jan), a Victorian house owned by the National Trust, just yards from Dove Cottage. Grasmere also has three very popular youth hostels . The YHA choices are Butterlip How , a Victorian house 150 yards north of the green on Easedale Road, and Thorney How , a characterful former farmhouse, just under a mile further along the unlit road. Reservations for both are made at Butterlip How (tel 015394/35316, ). There's also the excellent Grasmere Independent Hostel at Broadrayne Farm (tel 015394/35055, ; under A?40), just north of town on the A591, whose dorm rooms are all en suite.

The Rowan Tree , on Church Bridge, Stock Lane, opposite the churchyard, serves vegetarian dishes on a terrace overlooking the river and is open in the evenings, or there's the Dove Cottage Tea Rooms and Restaurant , at Town End near Dove Cottage, open during the day for tearoom favourites and at night (tel 015394/35268; closed Mon May-Oct, plus Tues & Sun rest of year) for fashionable dinners. The only real pub in the village is the Red Lion - whose public bar is called the Lamb Inn .