Dog-friendly The North Norfolk Coast

A plain, well-liked local on Church Street away from the quay crowds, doing locally sourced food and a proper Sunday roast. The pub states simply that dogs are allowed in the pub, which makes it one of the easier wet-afternoon options in Wells. Tuesday lunchtime is a two-course senior citizens' menu.

A village pub two miles inland from Wells with a bar, restaurant and a garden under a pergola. Well-behaved dogs are welcome inside and out, and daily specials come off a short, locally sourced menu. Quieter than anything on the coast road in August.

A flint-and-brick pub on Thornham high street with eleven bedrooms split between the inn and a cottage next door. The pub says it is dog friendly throughout, including most of the bedrooms, and overnight dogs get the use of a bed, a bowl and a ball to take home. Water and snacks are out for dogs all day, and there is a resident pub dog.

Chris Coubrough's coaching inn on the Buttlands, with a bar, the Chancery room and a conservatory dining room. Dogs are taken, but not everywhere: the hotel asks you to telephone before you arrive because not all areas are dog friendly, and only some bedrooms accept them. Food is a step up from standard pub cooking.

A brick inn beside the windmill at Cley with ten bedrooms and a view over the marshes to the shingle bank. Four-legged guests are welcome throughout, and the Norfolk Coast Path runs past the door, which makes it a natural end-of-walk stop. Self-catering options include the Coach House and Thurn Cottage.

A Georgian inn on the Buttlands, the tree-lined green a street back from the Wells quay, also part of the Holkham Estate. Dogs are welcome in most of the pub and in the majority of the bedrooms, and the inn asks you to say you are bringing one when you book. A sensible base for the Wells-to-Holkham beach walk.

The cafe at Dalegate Market on the coast road at Burnham Deepdale, doing breakfasts, cheese scones and sausage rolls with dressed salad and homemade slaw. Well-behaved dogs on short leads are welcome inside. Closed on Tuesdays, and busy in the hour after the tide pushes walkers off the marsh.

A small quayside eating place on The Quay at Wells, open Wednesday to Sunday all year round and run by the same family as the Albatros. It states on its own site that it is dog friendly. Convenient before or after the long walk out to the beach along the harbour wall.

Three miles, an hour and a half, with one genuinely steep pull up Beeston Bump, the glacial hill that rises straight out of the promenade at the east end of town and gives a two-county view from the top. It starts at the Cromer Road car park in Sheringham and follows the promenade east before climbing the Bump and returning through Beeston Regis on the field path behind the caravan site. Dogs are fine off lead on the grassy summit but the seaward face is an unfenced sixty-metre drop, cattle sometimes graze the Beeston Regis fields, and the council's no-dog area on the main beach runs from 1 May to 30 September, with leads required on the promenade in the same window.

Four and a quarter miles in about two hours on the grassed sea wall, a stretch of flint lane and a farm track back through Blakeney village, with the whole of the Point and its seal colony laid out to the north. Start from the quay car park at the bottom of the High Street, pay and display and the only sensible place to leave a car in Blakeney; the village streets are narrow and largely permit-only. The sea wall is fenced from the grazing marsh but cattle are often on the Freshes and the ditches hold brackish water, so leads on past stock, and there is no drinkable water on the route until you are back at the quay.

Eight miles there and back on loose shingle, four hours or more of genuinely hard going that punishes ankles and paws in equal measure, out to the old lifeboat house at the end of the Point and back the same way. It starts at the Beach Road car park at Cley, a pay-and-display gravel pen at the very end of the lane, exposed and sometimes closed after an overwash; there is no other access on foot. Dogs are barred from the whole of Blakeney Point from 1 April to 15 August for the ground-nesting terns, and again from 1 November until the middle of January for the grey seal pupping season, so this is a late-August to late-October walk, on a short lead, with no fresh water anywhere on the shingle.

Five and a half miles, about two and a half hours, on field paths, a quiet flint lane and the raised sea wall, linking three flint villages and the two great wool churches at Wiveton and Cley. It starts from the quay car park in Blakeney and can be shortened to three miles by turning back at Wiveton Bridge; the Coasthopper stops on the main road at the top of the village. Field-edge paths mean stiles and kissing gates, sheep and cattle graze the Glaven meadows so leads on there, and the River Glaven at Wiveton Bridge gives a safe shallow drink and a swim on a hot day.

Five miles and about two and a half hours, out onto the heather and gorse of Barrow Common for the view over the whole harbour, then down through Brancaster village and back along the Norfolk Coast Path past the Roman fort at Branodunum. Start at the harbour car park at Brancaster Staithe by the boatyards, free but small and usually taken by boat crews by mid-morning; the alternative is roadside space on the A149 through the village. Barrow Common allows a well-behaved dog off lead, the coast path section crosses grazed marsh where leads are needed, and the tidal creeks at the Staithe fill fast and run deep even in summer.

Seven and three quarter miles and close to four hours, the finest dune walk in England: out along the harbour wall, over the boardwalk to the empty sands at Gun Hill, east to Holkham Gap and back inland by field path and the old coach road. Start from the free roadside parking on East Harbour Way at Burnham Overy Staithe, which is limited and fills early, or from Lady Anne's Drive at Holkham and walk it the other way round. The sand between Gun Hill and Holkham Gap is Holkham National Nature Reserve, where dogs must be on leads in the marked breeding zones from 1 April to 31 August, over seventy per cent stays off lead under close control, and cattle graze the marsh on the inland return.

A well-run campsite, hostel and rooms complex on the coast road at Burnham Deepdale, with the marsh and the Norfolk Coast Path immediately behind. Deepdale welcomes guests with dogs, though it does not publish which accommodation types take them or what it charges, so ask when booking. Brancaster beach is a short walk or a shorter bus ride away.

Three hundred acres of heath and woodland above Weybourne, with its own halt on the North Norfolk Railway and miles of waymarked trails through the gorse. Designated dog-friendly Classic and Platinum lodges take dogs, and there is a dog wash on the park. Weybourne beach, which has no dog order, is a walk down the hill.

A large holiday park at the seaward end of Beach Road, sitting between the pinewoods and the beach with the miniature railway running back into town. The park says four-legged friends are very welcome, but does not publish which accommodation takes dogs or any charge. The unrestricted Wells beach is over the dune bank.

An Edwardian house built for Sir Edgar Speyer, now a hotel with lawns running out to the cliff path above Overstrand beach. The hotel says plainly that it is dog friendly and that you can bring your dog away with you, though it does not publish which rooms or what it charges. The cliff walk to Cromer starts at the end of the garden.

Dune, pine and grazing marsh at the corner where the north coast turns south into the Wash, with big skies and, at low tide in winter, real solitude. Dogs are allowed on a lead throughout the reserve and on the patio outside the visitor centre, where leash hooks are provided, but not inside the centre. Car parking must be booked in advance during 2026.

The Poppy Line, five and a quarter miles of steam railway from Sheringham through Weybourne to Holt, running along the cliff top and over the heath. Dogs travel on daily services for a small fee and are genuinely welcome, provided they are on a short lead at stations and stay off the seats and tables. A ride out and a walk back along the coast path is the classic way to use it.

The RSPB's flagship Norfolk reserve, where a single track runs out between freshwater lagoons and saltmarsh to a huge empty beach. Dogs on leads are allowed on the West Bank Path, which is a public footpath, and on the beach, but not on the Fen, East, Meadow or Autumn trails. Dogs are welcome in the welcome hub and shop.