Dog-friendly Dartmoor

A fifteenth-century stone inn tucked behind the church in Peter Tavy, on the western moor above Tavistock. Walkers, cyclists, dogs and children are all welcome, and the beer garden backs onto open country used for grazing, so leads on for the last stretch.

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 monastic building turned inn in South Zeal, with a prehistoric standing stone built into the back wall and a hotel bar that has changed very little. Dogs on leads are welcome in the bar and gardens and get a free biscuit on arrival, but the inn is straightforward about the limit: not in the hotel rooms.

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.

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.

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.

A 4.5-mile loop of the reservoir road and shoreline tracks under the western tors, about two and a quarter hours with 150 metres of climbing and firm going the whole way, past the two dams, the ruined farms and the arboretum. Park at the Discovery Centre, the Quarry car park or Norsworthy Bridge, all free with donation boxes, and note that the lane round the reservoir is narrow and used by cars, so the shoreline paths are the better line where they exist. There is water everywhere for a dog and a level 1.5-kilometre easy-access trail in the arboretum for older legs, but sheep and ponies come down off Sheepstor and Leather Tor onto the road and the open moor above the water is access land with the 1 March to 31 July lead requirement.

A sheltered 3.8 miles round the reservoir and its spruce plantations, about two hours with 110 metres of climbing almost entirely on forest road and stone track, with a stone circle and two bronze age cairns just off the route. Start at the Forestry England car park by the dam, four miles of narrow lane south-west of Chagford, free with toilets in season and a decent bet on a wet or windy day when the open moor is unpleasant. Dogs are welcome and the forest roads are wide and firm for a long off-lead run with water at the reservoir edge, but the shoreline is a drawdown zone that turns to deep sticky mud in summer, the plantation gates open onto grazed moor at the western end, and the access land beyond carries the 1 March to 31 July lead rule.

Four and a half miles between Dartmoor's two most famous tors, two and a half hours with 260 metres of climbing on the granite setts of the old quarry tramway, open moor grass and one rough drop to the Becka Brook. Start at the lower Haytor car park on the Bovey Tracey to Widecombe road, where roadside parking is free but strung out along the moor edge and full by ten on any fine day; the seasonal Haytor Hoppa bus links the tors on summer Saturdays. This is open access land with cattle, sheep and ponies loose across all of it, so dogs must be on a lead from 1 March to 31 July for lambing and ground-nesting birds and near stock at any time of year, the flooded quarry pools are deep and steep-sided, and the brook at the bottom is the only safe drinking water.

A 1.75-mile there-and-back through the deepest gorge in the south west to the 30-metre White Lady waterfall, an hour of walking with 120 metres of climbing on rocky paths, handrails and some very steep pitches. Start at the waterfall entrance car park at the western end, which is free to National Trust members and part of a paid admission otherwise, and note that in winter only the shorter routes stay open when the river is high. Dogs must be on short leads throughout because the path clings to a wet rock ledge above the water for much of the way, there is nowhere safe for a dog to swim, and a big strong dog on a narrow handrailed section is a genuine risk rather than a nuisance.

A 3.2-mile circuit of a broad heather and gorse common on the eastern edge of the moor, an hour and three quarters with 160 metres of climbing on moor grass tracks, a short lane and one stony descent, taking in the Headless Cross and a stone circle. Park on the wide verge at the cattle grid where the Moretonhampstead to Clifford Bridge lane crosses the down, which is free and holds a dozen or so cars, or walk up from the town square in twenty-five minutes. This is common grazing so sheep, cattle and the odd pony are always somewhere on it and the 1 March to 31 July lead rule applies to the access land, there are no stiles anywhere on the route, and the only water is a boggy runnel on the north side, so bring a bottle.

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 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.

A granite coaching hotel at the crossroads in the middle of Dartmoor, with the West Dart running past the lawn. Dogs stay in most of the bedrooms for seventeen pounds a night and are welcome in the log-fired bar and the lounge, with a few dog treats left in the room; they are not allowed in the restaurant, but the kitchen will lay a table for you in the bar or lounge instead. Bring your own bedding and food.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 squat twelfth-century tower that served as the stannary prison, standing in the middle of a Saxon burh on the north-west edge of Dartmoor. Free to enter, unstaffed and listed by English Heritage as dog friendly, with dogs on leads; the village is also the way in to Lydford Gorge.