Dog-friendly Salcombe

A beach brasserie at North Sands, Salcombe, doing barbecues, crab sandwiches and buckets of prawns. It bills itself as family and dog friendly, which is the useful pairing here: North Sands has no council dog ban, while South Sands round the corner is closed to dogs all summer.

Three point nine miles of easy coast above the eastern shore of the Salcombe estuary, taking around two and a quarter hours with 190 metres of climbing on rocky cliff path, a surfaced lane and one green lane. Start at the small East Portlemouth car park, or leave the car in Salcombe and cross on the passenger ferry from Whitestrand, which takes dogs for a small fare and saves the long drive round by Frogmore. This is the best dog walk on the estuary because Mill Bay, Sunny Cove and Rickham Sand all stay open to dogs year round, there is sheltered water to swim in on the way out, and the only care needed is the unfenced cliff top by Gara Rock and stock in the fields on the green lane home.

A 3.6-mile circuit from South Sands up past the palms of Overbeck's to the rock towers of Sharp Tor and Bolt Head, about two and a quarter hours with 240 metres of climbing on uneven, rocky cliff path and a stepped drop into Starehole Bay. Start from the small paid car park at Tides Reach or leave the car in Shadycombe in Salcombe and take the South Sands ferry, because the lane down is narrow and the beach parking fills by mid-morning. Dogs are excluded from South Sands between 1 May and 30 September except to cross on a lead for the ferry, but the headland above is open and off-lead, with sheep in the fields behind Tor Woods and a long unfenced drop above Starehole.

A one-mile National Trust loop out to a low headland in the middle of the Salcombe estuary, half an hour of gentle walking with a few steps and about 45 metres of climbing on grass and farm track. The Trust car park at the top of Sandhills Road is free and holds perhaps a dozen cars, so it is a good bet when Salcombe itself is gridlocked; the walk is also reachable on foot from the town in fifteen minutes. Dogs can be off the lead on the headland but the loop crosses grazed pasture with cattle in summer, and the shoreline below is reached only at a couple of muddy gaps, so this is a view walk rather than a swimming one.