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The Tufton Arms Hotel, a former coaching inn, is situated in the stunningly beautiful Eden Valley, in the market town of Appleby in Westmoreland. Walk into the warmth of the Tufton Arms Hotel, a renowned watering hole in the centre of the medieval market town of Appleby-in-Westmorland, and savour the experience. Guests dine on excellent modern British food in the elegant Conservatory Restaurant overlooking the cobbled Mews courtyard. Be prepared to spend some time browsing through the menus for a wide selection of delicious dishes, using local fresh produce. The superb quality of the whole experience has not gone unnoticed and the restaurant has received many awards.

You will be welcomed with a smile at reception and a genuine concern that your stay will be not just pleasant but memorable. It is quite likely you will immediately meet one of the owners, the Milsom family.

The Hotel was lovingly restored in 1989, by the Milsoms, who also run the Royal Hotel, Comrie, Perthshire. Since it had been a former Victorian coaching inn, the idea was to evoke that era when the Tufton Arms reached its present proportions.

All twenty-two ensuite bedrooms are individually furnished and decorated, with all the modern day comforts you would expect.

With a wine list of over a hundred and sixty bins, expertly chosen for value and distinction, the perfect marriage to meat, game, fish or seafood is assured.

Menus change according to the season but a roast rack of Eden Valley lamb is a constant favourite as are grouse, partridge and other game in season. Fresh fish comes up daily from Fleetwood and is well represented in the form of lightly grilled fillet of salmon and baked cod steak. Whole sirloins of local beef from Appleby's famous butcher Mr Ewbank appear on the carving trolley on Sunday lunchtime.

For banqueting or conferences there are three purposefully designed conference and function suites. Elegantly furnished to retain the hotel's character and ambiance, the suites offer a luxurious backdrop to any occasion and meet all business requirements.

If you feel like pampering yourself in one of the most scenic parts of Britain, you might consider the Tufton Arms well worth while. Do visit their Website to find out more.

Appleby is a delightful little town, and somehow the Royal Oak personifies its charm and antiquity. Standing at the meeting of the Settle and Carlisle Railway and the time-scarred route winding its way over the Pennines from Scotch Corner to Penrith, one of its most compelling buildings is the Royal Oak, with over 300 years of solace and comfort to travellers and residents alike to its credit. The interior is an array of wooden panelling, some stonework and open fires.

A menu with strong English overtones nevertheless has enough adventure in it to warrant a European cachet. Starters include that old classic, prawns St Jacques, local goat's cheese with a warm red pepper marmalade, or the day's choice of sorbet with slices of melon and forest berries. The local butcher is Mr Ewebank and by the same token Mrs Eleanor Ewebank makes the renowned sausages of that name, regularly seen on the menu at the Royal Oak. Grilled salmon with a lobster and prawn sauce competes with the local trout, baked and stuffed with potato rosti, cucumber and prawns.

Puddings include summerfruit pie, bread and butter pudding and the inevitable (but never to be derided) sticky toffee pudding which now comes in so many different varieties that it is necessary to return to Cartmel to rediscover the original.

An incredibly good value lunchtime and early evening menu operates until 7.15, when for a £6.95 hungry passers-by can enjoy a main course, pudding and drink; I should think some of the best value to be had in that part of the world.

Located just outside the quintessentially English town of Appleby, the Manor is a fine example of Victorian built-to-last building at its best. Pitch pine door cases are of the best, and the dining room is panelled in oak. The hotel is surrounded by some half million acres of high quality landscape and every June the Horse Fair comes to Appleby.

Serious attention is given to the aspirations of the gourmand at Appleby Manor. The menu reflects the quality of locally sourced food with starters of ballotine of Cumbrian pheasant and foie gras, a delicious assiette of smoked Cumberland sausage with potato salad and quail's egg, mitton of pork with home-made piccalilli, sausage and caramelised onion, baked in a brioche with redcurrant sauce. Proximity to Scotland is invoked with the tower of Scotch haggis, involving creamed potato and swede puree topped with a poached egg, crisp fried onions and whisky Hollandaise.

The local theme is maintained with a confit of Cumbrian belly pork with an apple and black pudding timbale, butternut squash puree, champ potatoes and a home-made faggot. The roast loin of Kendal rough fell lamb is rolled with a rosemary and garlic farce, sat on pan-fried herb polenta. From the Atlantic come oven-baked tournedos of cod filled with a prawn and herb mousse wrapped in parma ham on slowly braised green lentils with glazed Parisienne potatoes, tempura of baby vegetables and tomato coulis.

Even the puddings have a Cumbrian tinge with sticky toffee pudding at the top of the list and an ever changing selection to follow. Local cheeses also feature and rumour has it that if you are very diplomatic a good, old-fashioned savoury is sometimes available. The wine list contains offerings from the vineyards of fourteen countries, and should be taken seriously. House wine starts at £13.95, by the glass at £3.50.