Dog-friendly The Cheviots & Coquetdale

A well-run village inn between Wooler and Alnwick, serving food across both the bar and the restaurant with dogs welcome in both. Some of the bedrooms take dogs on enquiry, and a dog bed and treats can be put in the room. A good halfway house between the Cheviots and the coast.

A roadside inn on the A697 north of Wooler, and the most explicit dog policy in this corner of the county: dogs are welcome in the bar, on the outside decking and in the bedrooms, but not in the main restaurant. Good beer, decent plain cooking and easy parking. A sensible stop between the Cheviots and the Tweed.

Wooler's main coaching inn, seventeen rooms and a bar with a real fire, and the obvious base for the Cheviot hills and St Cuthbert's Way. For ten pounds per stay dogs are welcome in all areas except the restaurants, and some bedrooms are kept dog-free while others take dogs. The self-catering Garden House takes them too.

Four and a quarter miles and 250 metres of climbing in two and a half hours up onto the ramparts of the Iron Age fort on Brough Law and round by Ewe Hill and Cochrane Pike above the Breamish. Start from the free National Park parking strips along the valley road past Ingram, where there is space for dozens of cars but almost all of it is on the grass verge and it fills with picnickers on hot days. The Breamish is beside the road at the start and makes a fine shallow paddle, and the hill tracks are good off-lead ground, but the fell is grazed all year, ground-nesting curlew and lapwing mean leads from March to July, and there is no water once you are on the tops.

Eight miles and 400 metres of climbing in four and a half hours, up the medieval drove road of Clennell Street to Copper Snout, down into the Alwin valley and back over Barrow Scar above the Coquet gorge. Start at the National Park car park at Alwinton, free with about 30 spaces, which is the last parking before the military ranges and the last building of any kind is the Rose and Thistle in the village. This is as remote as English walking gets: much of the ground is Ministry of Defence land where access is only permitted when no red flags or lamps are flying, there is no phone signal in the valleys, and the fell is grazed by hardy sheep with ground-nesting curlew from March to July, though the Alwin gives good water.

Five miles and 220 metres of climbing in two and a half hours round Lord Armstrong’s Victorian pleasure ground, past Tumbleton Lake, under the house and along the two Nelly’s Moss lakes on rhododendron-lined tracks. Start from the main car park inside the Cragside estate off the B6341, which is large and free to National Trust members and included in the admission charge otherwise. Dogs are welcome everywhere outdoors here including the formal gardens but must be on a lead at all times, which the Trust puts down to the crag drops, the roe deer and the red squirrels; water bowls and dog bins are provided and dogs may ride the free shuttle bus.

Eight miles with only 200 metres of climbing but four hours of it, from the great green at Elsdon past the Norman motte and out over the moor to the replica gallows at Steng Cross where William Winter was hung in chains in 1792. Park on the roadside round Elsdon’s green, which is free and generous, though the village has one pub and no shop; there is also a lay-by at the gibbet itself if you would rather see it without the walk. Miles of empty moor track where a dog can run with burns to drink from, but the ground is grazed by sheep the whole way, holds ground-nesting curlew and lapwing from March to July, and the last stretch follows an unfenced moor road with fast traffic.

Four and a half miles and 160 metres of climbing in a little over two hours, taking in the Drake Stone, Harbottle Lake, the open crags above and the earthworks of the Norman castle on the way back into the village. Start at the free West Wood car park at the west end of Harbottle, about 15 spaces, with the walk finishing along the Coquet edge of the village. Forest track for the first mile is safe off the lead and the Coquet at the end gives a swim, but the crags are a grazed nature reserve with ground-nesting birds where leads are asked for from March to July, the lake bog is dangerously deep, and the castle mound has sudden drops.

Six and a half miles and 560 metres of climbing in four hours, over the granite tors of Housey Crags and up the long grass ridge to the 714-metre summit of Hedgehope Hill, the second of the Cheviots, returning down the Harthope Burn. Start from the informal roadside pull-ins in the Harthope valley below Langleeford; there is no car park, no toilet and no phone signal, and the lane from Wooler is single track for four miles. Genuinely remote walking where the nearest help is a long way off: the burn gives water low down and nothing does above, the tors have short scrambly steps a big dog will need helping over, and sheep and ground-nesting birds mean leads on open ground from March to July.

A holiday park on the Wooler Water with lodges and caravans, and its own dog-friendly bar and restaurant on site, which spares you the walk into town in bad weather. Marketed squarely at dog owners. Handy for Humbleton Hill and the Harthope road into the hills.

A stone inn off Rothbury's high street with nine en-suite letting rooms, all of them dog-friendly, which makes it the simplest booking in Coquetdale with a dog. The Simonside ridge and the Coquet riverside walks are both within a mile. The pub does not publish a policy for its bar areas, so check on arrival if that matters to you.

A local on Rothbury High Street with six en-suite rooms above, including pet-friendly options among the singles, family rooms and suites. The pet-friendly rooms are a subset rather than the whole house, so specify at booking. Central for the market place, the Coquet and the bus to Alnwick.

Farm bed and breakfast and self-catering above Thropton, looking across Coquetdale to Simonside. One unit, Demoiselle, is let for dog-friendly stays; the rest of the accommodation is not. Quiet lanes, a working farm around you and Rothbury two miles east.

A whisky distillery and Anglo-Saxon museum built new on Wooler's South Road, telling the story of the royal palace excavated at Yeavering nearby. Dogs are welcome on the outdoor patio seating overlooking the garden, but not through the museum or the indoor restaurant. Worth an hour when the Cheviots are in cloud.

The valley road ends at Hartside, past river shingle, hillforts and cleared settlements, with parking on the haughs at Ingram and Bulby's Wood. The national park's own guidance is the one to follow here: dogs are very welcome but as a general rule should be kept on a lead, with particular care not to scare sheep and lambs or disturb birds. There is no shop past Powburn and no mobile signal in the upper valley.

A medieval drove road climbing out of Alwinton over the hills to the Border ridge, still a green track for most of its length. Alwinton is the last village in upper Coquetdale: beyond it there is no fuel, no shop and no signal, and the Otterburn military ranges lie to the east with live firing on published days. Leads on for sheep and nesting birds, and turn back early rather than late.

The most private valley in the Cheviots, running south from Hethpool to the Border ridge under the Cheviot itself. The estate issues only a small number of vehicle permits each day on a first-come basis, so most visitors walk or cycle in from Hethpool. Remote, unserviced hill country: leads on for sheep and nesting birds, and take everything you need with you.

A single-track road runs south-west from Wooler into the Harthope burn, ending in a valley of bracken, sheep and crags with Hedgehope and the Cheviot either side. Verge parking only, no facilities, no shop and patchy phone signal: this is the remote end of Northumberland and should be treated as such. The national park asks for dogs on leads here, with lambs and ground-nesting curlew and lapwing on the ground.

A walled spring pool in a stand of trees outside Holystone, said to have served as a baptismal site and now a strangely quiet place with a stone cross standing in the water. Five minutes from the road, on a short lane from the village. Leads on: the surrounding fields are grazed and the national park asks for dogs under control throughout.