Dog-friendly Postbridge

Four miles round the conifer blocks and clearings of Bellever, about two hours with 140 metres of climbing on forest road and stony track, out to Laughter Tor and back along the East Dart to the clapper bridge at Postbridge. Start at the main Bellever village car park, signed off the B3212 with toilets and picnic tables, free and rarely full; the smaller Postbridge village car park has the National Park information point and is the alternative if you want the bridge first. Dogs are welcome and the forest roads are wide and firm enough for a long off-lead run with the river to swim in at Bellever bridge, but cattle and ponies wander in from the moor through the open gates, sheep graze the clearings, and the moorland beyond the forest is access land where leads are required from 1 March to 31 July.

Forestry England conifer plantation and riverbank beside the East Dart at Postbridge, with easy tracks and a clapper bridge within walking distance. Dogs are allowed, but native Dartmoor ponies graze freely in and around the forest and must not be fed or chased, so this is close-control country rather than a free run. Two pay-and-display car parks, at Bellever and in Postbridge village.