Two large Lake District hotels will not reopen after their parent company collapsed into administration.

The Derwentwater Hotel in Portinscale, near Keswick and the Windermere Hotel on Kendal Road, Windermere were owned by Specialist Leisure Group.

The hotels, which operated under the Coast & Country Hotels brand, were forced to close due to government restrictions as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold.

A message from the administrators on their websites said: "All hotels trading as Bay Hotels, Coast & Country Hotels and Country Living Hotels will not reopen."

Specialist Leisure Group also owned several travel brands, including Shearings Holidays, National Coaches and Wallace Arnold.

More than 64,000 bookings have been cancelled and around 2,500 jobs lost due to its failure.

The firm struggled to issue thousands of refunds due to the pandemic, while new bookings ground to a halt.

In a statement group, chief executive Richard Calvert said: "This is a terribly sad day for employees, customers and commercial partners of the Specialist Leisure Group and its subsidiaries which have entered into administration.

"The effects of Covid-19 on our 117-year-old company and the wider travel industry have been devastating."

"In the most trying of circumstances, over these past few months, we have fought tooth and nail to save the group and the jobs of our 2,400 loyal employees serving over 1.1 million customers annually.

"It is heart-breaking that the required funding or investment could not be secured to get us through this unprecedented crisis in order to save SLG and our amazing travel brands."

In Lancashire, the Bay Liberty's Hotel in Blackpool and the Bay Strathmore Hotel at Morecambe will also remain closed.

Customers with hotel-only bookings have been advised to contact their credit or debit card provider in a bid to retrieve their money.