Outdoors: Langdale Valley in the Lake District

A walking holiday with children, if you don't want to spend your time cajoling them to keep up, requires accommodating their abilities and attention span.

Endless marches at a pace they aren't comfortable with can put them off altogether, but with a couple of pre-teens, two adults used to tackling quite difficult walks might easily get bored. A mixed-ability walking holiday was what we required.

It helps if you are staying in a nice place. The New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel, in the Langdale Valley, is a hotel for real walkers, not the legions of bus trippers that other parts of Cumbria attracts every bank holiday. The setting is breathtaking; the hotel sits at the foot of the Langdale Pikes, two of the most iconic summits in this area of famous mountains. An ill-informed sat nav sent us on a somewhat circuitous route from Grasmere to get there, but while the drive was interesting, it is best approached from Ambleside if you want to avoid grey hairs.

Whichever way you come upon it, the appearance of the hotel is everything you would want from a traditional Cumbrian inn. Despite its moniker, the New Dungeon Ghyll Hotel is a couple of hundred years old, its name is to distinguish it from an even older place alongside it.

The traditional grey slate exterior is set in six acres of landscaped garden with the hills rising immediately behind. Inside, the hotel caters for walkers, with an inviting bar where boots and dogs are welcome to dry off by the fire, but it also has a more formal dining room for those who have the energy to change out of their walking clothes.

The chief delight of the hotel's location is that any level of walker need never get in the car during their stay. The hotel has produced a handy guide to walks in the area, all of which start from right outside, and range in difficulty from an ascent of the Langdale Pikes including a 2500ft climb, to a four-mile gentle loop taking in some of the Cumbrian Way.

With our group, the first day we tackled the latter and found that to our surprise, sometimes it is as good to stay on low ground and view the mountains rather than to do it the other way round. The route took us past becks, tarns and the children tackled it with ease. But then a circular walk is always good, especially when you know that there is a fire blazing and a gin and tonic or ginger beer and crisps waiting back at the hotel.

After steam drying our trousers in the bar we made the effort to smarten up and try the restaurant for dinner. The hotel specialises in local game, but has plenty of poultry and seafood choices too. The set menu was sophisticated and delicious, with highlights being a hot smoked salmon risotto and pan-seared scallops wrapped in pancetta.

We resisted the urge to leave the kids in the hotel and try one of the more challenging walks the next day and went further afield. Ullswater is a beautiful spot for walking and has the advantage of the Ullswater Steamers travelling up and down the long lake, meaning you can leave your car at any of the three stop-off points, catch a ride to the next one and walk back. It also adds excitement for the children. Parking at Glenridding, we decided that half of Ullswater was probably far enough, measuring seven miles in all, but with some challenging climbs. It is described by some as the most scenic lakeside walk in Cumbria, which is a bold claim, but with the views of the whole of Ullswater plus the majesty of Helvellyn on the far shore, I couldn't argue. The only thing I would do differently is to catch the steamer to the start point rather than aim to catch it at the end; it made for some anxious clock watching when I should have been rainbow and red squirrel spotting.

The third and last day's walking was a journey of rediscovery to a place I walked as a child when all my holidays were spent in cagoules and walking boots. High Dam is just near the village of Finsthwaite by the south eastern corner of Lake Windermere. A sharp ascent through a forest brings you to a path round a man-made lake, created to feed the waterwheel of the bobbin mill below, but in the decades since it was last used, it has been overtaken by nature and now resembles much of the high mountain tarns with sunshine peeping through the leaves and fish jumping in the still water. It is a magical place and my children were as entranced as I was, with High Dam, the Lake District and walking for pleasure.

THE FACTS

New Dungeon Ghyll, Great Langdale, Cumbria (01539 437213

www.dungeon-ghyll.co.uk). Three-night breaks in October, from 149pp for B&B. A two-night stay on any weekend in November and December 2010 and January 2011 costs from 145pp, to include a bottle of wine with dinner on the first night.

This article was first published in The Scotsman on 2 October, 2010