Dog-friendly Water and around

A boulder-strewn woodland gorge on the eastern moor, with a seventy-foot waterfall and marked trails of varying difficulty. Dogs are welcome but a strict dogs-on-leads rule is enforced for the sake of the resident animals and wildlife, and the Animal Discovery Zone is closed to them.

The excavated longhouses of a village abandoned in the fourteenth century, on open moor below Hound Tor itself. It is one of English Heritage's dog-friendly Devon sites, free and unstaffed; the walk in crosses grazed common where sheep, cattle and ponies roam, so leads go on.

A quiet country hotel in ten acres on the south-eastern edge of Dartmoor, above Haytor. Only certain rooms take dogs, so booking direct is the only way to be sure of one; dogs on leads may use one lounge, the bar, the conservatory and the garden, but the main restaurant is out of bounds.

The big fourteenth-century inn beside the church in Widecombe, geared to walkers coming off the moor. The house line is that they are very doggy friendly and always have a treat waiting, and the walled garden takes the overflow on a summer Sunday.

A grand 1920s house turned five-star resort in the Bovey valley, with lodges in the grounds and its own golf course. Dogs are allowed in all the bedrooms and lodges, in the Library, the seating area under the main staircase and on the South Terrace, and residents may bring them into Smith's Brasserie; the hotel also hands out walk booklets for routes from the door.

A Bronze Age settlement of two dozen hut circles inside a stone enclosure wall, high on the moor between Widecombe and Postbridge. English Heritage lists it as dog friendly and there is no gate or ticket, but the whole approach is grazed common land, which is the honest caveat on all of central Dartmoor.

A Georgian posting house on the square at Moretonhampstead, on the eastern edge of the moor. Well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome in the dog-friendly bedrooms and elsewhere in the hotel including the restaurant, and ten pounds per dog per night buys a bed, bowl, towel and bag of treats.

Forest tracks around Fernworthy Reservoir, high on the moor above Chagford, with stone circles and cairns on the open ground beyond the trees. Dogs are allowed on the forest trails; the pay-and-display car park is run by South West Lakes Trust and it is a long way from a shop, so bring water.

A thatched thirteenth-century inn on Chagford's High Street, restored around a glass-roofed courtyard. Six ground-floor bedrooms are set aside for dogs, each opening onto the courtyard so late walks do not involve carrying a muddy spaniel through reception.

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.