What makes a great walker's boozer? A hill-foot location, naturally, plus the essential roaring fires and quality ale. An outdoor heritage helps too, but more important still is that hard-to-define pub atmosphere. Which are the very best in Britain is always likely to be contentious, but Daniel Neilson, author of CAMRA's guide to Wild Pub Walks, knows better than most. Here he spills the beer on ten of his favourites.

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It's the best pint of the week. Supping deeply on a locally-made beer knowing you've earned it. Your legs may be tired, your socks wet, your shoulders a deep shade of crimson, but this all dissipates with that first pint. So what should a great walker's pub have? Well, there are certain elements that do link many of them together: a 'muddy boots welcome' sign, a mountain rescue collection box on the bar, some kind of maps or walking paraphernalia on the wall. A log fire in winter and a beer garden with a view in summer. But perhaps, more than anything, they should be individual, eccentric, idiosyncratic. They should have character. Oh, and the beer needs to be perfect. But take that as read with all of the following pubs.

Old Dungeon Ghyll, Lake District

Old Dungeon Ghyll, deep in Langdale, is one of the classic hillwalking pubs anywhere. As a hotel in the early 1900s, it was sold to Professor GM Trevelyan who then gave it to the National Trust. A 'Climber's Bar' was opened in 1949, where it remains today (albeit now called the Hikers' Bar). It's set in old cow stalls (and looking around you can still see them), and is a lively place at the end of a good day of walking, when Gore-Tex-clad walkers descend from the mountains around it and meet in the bar for beer and banter. Climbing heroes Joe Brown, Don Whillans, Ian MacNaught- Davis, Chris Bonington and Ian Clough have all drank in the bar or given talks here. It's a fun place, but they take their beer seriously with nine handpumps on my last visit. The view from the beer garden is fantastic and the fire roars in winter. This is a brilliant pub.

• Old Dungeon Ghyll, Great Langdale, LA22 9JY
• odg.co.uk
• 015394 37272

Clachaig Inn, Glen Coe

The Clachaig Inn is the most important pub in Scotland for mountaineering history. Just a glance around the walls informs you of this inn's importance. Here we have signed pictures from some of the world's greatest mountaineers: Doug Scott and Alan Hinkes are present. In one picture taken at the seventh Scottish Mountaineering Council meeting held at the Inn at Easter 1906, we see William W Naismith who worked out the formula, known as Naismith's rule, for walking speeds on mountains. There's J Norman Collie who pioneered climbs in the Cuillin Ridge in the Isle of Skye and Himalaya, and a certain Sir Hugh Munro. It was also in this Inn that Hamish MacInnes founded the Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team in 1962. On the wall are some of the first ice axes made by MacInnes himself that changed the way ice axes were made. And why here? Well, one glance around the mountains Glen Coe should offer some clues.

"When I graduated in 2008, I wanted to head for the hills. I saw an advert for a bar job at the Clachaig and applied without hesitation. Over the next two and a half years I came to see the Clachaig as a sort of special universe, a magic bubble where like-minded hill folk get together and hatch grand plans over a pint or three before staggering, hungover but determined, up into the mountains together the next day. In my time at the Clachaig I climbed a lot, made lifelong friends, and forged an unbreakable connection with the Scottish mountains. The fact that I ended up staying far longer than originally planned tells you all you need to know, but the bewildering selection of cask ales and single malts might have had something to do with it as well…" Alex Roddie

• Clachaig Inn, Glencoe, Argyll, PH49 4HX
• 01855 811252
• clachaig.com

Pen y Gwryd, Snowdonia

The Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel is known to every Everest enthusiast in the world. It is from here both Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay trained for their successful climb of the world's highest mountain with the expedition leader John Hunt. This hotel, along with what is now YHA Snowdon Pen-y-Pass father up the valley, has long been at the centre of British climbing, right through the golden age. The foreboding cliffs below Y Lliwedd, the ridge descending from Snowdon's south-western flank, was widely used. Today, in this former farmhouse, memorabilia from that historic climb can be perused as you sup on a pint. It is a place that exudes history.

• Pen-y-Gwryd Hotel, Nant Gwynant, Gwynedd, LL55 4NT
• 01286 870211
• pyg.co.uk

Bridge Inn, Grinton, Yorkshire Dales

Does it have signed photos of mountaineers on the wall? No. Did it once provide refreshment for an expedition team? No. But what this fabulous little pub does is provide the warmest of welcomes for walkers who have spent a day around the remote moors above Swaledale.

A 'muddy boots welcome' sign stands outside, and some cycling paraphernalia also suggests its popularity among road and mountain bikers. This is a coaching inn and dates back to the 15th century. The main room has a log burning stove and postcards and money notes from around the world above the bar. The Thursday night music evening is very popular, with musicians and drinkers joining sat around the tables playing and signing.

• Bridge Inn, Grinton, DL11 6HH
• 01748 884224
• bridgeinn-grinton.co.uk

Ben Nevis Inn, Fort William

The Ben Nevis Inn couldn't be better placed – right at the foot of the mountain – but don't expect menus in six languages and fizzy lager. It's converted from farm buildings, but has a homely feel more reminiscent of an alpine lodge than a pub, with a log-burning fire, a mezzanine with Chesterfield sofas, and climbing paraphernalia scattered artfully around the place. The long tables inspire a convivial atmosphere. On my visit, there were beers from local-ish breweries Cairngorm, Isle of Skye and the very small An Teallach Ale Company. There's not a more welcoming place for a beer after a long day on the mountain. The food is very good too.

• Ben Nevis Inn, Achintee Road, Claggan, PH33 6TE
• 01397 701227
• ben-nevis-inn.co.uk

The Wainwright, Keswick

Walkers in Keswick are spoilt for pub options. The Dog & Gun is, of course, a classic (and yes, they still serve the goulash and a great range of beer), but the Wainwright's raison d'être is hillwalking. A pair of boots hanging outside that have completed the 214 'Wainwright' Fells welcomes walkers. Inside prints and photographs of the fells are on the walls including the spectacular line drawings of the fells by the lovely Mark Richards whose eight-volume collection of Lakeland Fellranger books is the definitive modern guide to the fells of the Lake District. There's also a fantastic range of beers from local breweries including Fell Brewery, Tractor Shed Brewery, Tarn Hows Brewery and Strands Brewery – see the 'pictorial guide to our Lakeland ales' on the wall near the bar.

• The Wainwright, Lake Road, CA12 5BZ
• 017687 44927
• thewainwright.pub

Wasdale Head Inn, Lake District

This remarkable pub and hotel is often cited as the birthplace of climbing (though the crags above it might lay a more convincing claim). It's certainly up there with the Clachaig Inn in the Highlands of Scotland and the Pen-y-Gwryd in Snowdonia, in the annals of climbing history.

The bar is named after Will Ritson, the first, eccentric, landlord of the pub who was known for inspiring an annual competition called The World's Biggest Liar, where people are asked to spin the best yarns. Ritson retired in 1879, just as the Golden Age of British Climbing was about to begin. The newly formed climbing fraternity would descend on the hotel. Walter Parry Haskett Smith and after him Owen Glynne Jones, star of some of the Abraham Brothers photographs on display in the hotel (they met at the hotel), were among the biggest names in the sport. William Wordsworth, Charles Dickens and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who famously scrambled down Scafell's scary Broad Stand in 1802, have all stayed at the inn. There are also photographs and paintings of Joss Naylor MBE, a fell runner and local resident who has been described as our greatest living athlete.

• Wasdale Head Inn, Wasdale Head, CA20 1EX
• 019467 26229
• wasdale.com

The Old Nags Head, Edale

'Muddy boots welcome' is the sign you need to see when you're approaching a pub looking like a drowned rat. The Old Nags Head, in an old smithy dating back to 1577, has been welcoming people for hundreds of years. The pub is perhaps best known as the official start of the Pennine Way, Britain's first long-distance trail conceived by the campaigner Tom Stephenson, and opened in 1965. Photographic evidence of another walking milestone does exist in on the walls of the pub, that of the launch of the first National Park warden service in the country. On Good Friday 1954, three years after the Peak District became the country's first national park, Tom Tomlinson became the first head warden. With him in the photos is the landlord of the Nag's Head Inn, as it was then called, Fred Heardman. He was affectionately known as Bill the Bogtrotter for his love of walking and was an active campaigner for the formation of the Peak District National Park.

• The Old Nags Head, Edale, Debyshire, S33 7ZD
• 01433 670 291
• the-old-nags-head.co.uk

The Winking Owl, Aviemore

Like the Ben Nevis Inn, this pub in Aviemore is more set up as an Alpine-style lodge than a British pub. It is the de facto tap room for Cairngorm Brewery, and there's always a wide selection of the beers on hand pull, plus all the bottles, and as you'd expect it's always top notch. It is popular with walkers and outdoorsy types who have just returned from an inevitably adventurous day out on the Cairngorm Plateau, and therefore a pub we liked very much! Check out the Old Bridge Inn too, a lovely pub with good food, great beers and a wide selection of whiskies. There is a fire, armchairs, board games and weekly live music.

• The Winking Owl, 123 Grampian Road, Aviemore PH22 1RH
• 01479 812368
• thewinkingowl.co

Y Sior, Bethesda

There's always a dilemma when returning off the mountains from a walk around the Glyderau, from a scramble up Tryfan, from a climb on the Idwal Slabs: where to go for a pint? One option is, of course, the Pen y Gwryd, but to throw in a curveball, I'd recommend a fantastic little pub above Bethesda called Y Sior or The George. On my last visit, with muddy boots and a muddy dog, we were welcomed in, placed near the fire and had real ales brought to us. An evening of bantering with the regulars ensued. This is exactly what a pub should be. A real boozer. Friendly, down-to-earth, and with very good local beers.

• The George Inn, 35-37 Carneddi Road, Bethesda, LL57 3SE
• 01248 600072