Dog-friendly The North Pennines

A twelfth-century abbot's house at the head of a stone village on the Durham border, with a bar in the vaulted crypt and a fire you can sit beside for hours. Dogs are welcome in the bar and garden areas, and specific bedrooms are set aside as dog-friendly, so name yours when you book. The moor starts at the end of the village and the dark skies here are among the best in England.

A village cafe at 1,500 feet in one of the highest settlements in England, on Isaac's Tea Trail and welcome after a wet mile of it. Dog friendly, with dog beds and treats supplied. Opening is limited out of season, so check before you commit to the climb.

Four miles in a shade under two hours, down to the East Allen at the old smelt mill and up the wooded riverside to Oakpool before returning by Monk’s Wood on a section of Isaac’s Tea Trail. Start in the market place at Allendale Town, where roadside parking is free and there is usually space except on the day of the New Year tar barrel parade. The river is beside you for most of the way with easy shelving access for a drink or a swim, the woodland stretches are safe off the lead, and the two hay meadows above Oakpool are grazed by sheep from autumn.

Five and a half miles there and back in around two and a half hours, upstream from England’s highest market town on riverside path and old trackbed to the green at Garrigill. Start from the station car park at Alston, beside the South Tynedale Railway, which is free and the largest parking in the town; the cobbled market place has only a handful of spaces. The South Tyne is alongside almost the whole way with plenty of places for a dog to get in, and much of it is safely off the lead, but riverside meadows are grazed by sheep and there are stiles and gates to negotiate at the field boundaries.

Five miles of nearly level linear walking in two and a half hours, north down the South Tyne valley on the old Haltwhistle branch railway past Kirkhaugh and Lintley to Slaggyford. Start at Alston station car park, which is free and the largest in the town, and take the narrow-gauge South Tynedale Railway back from Slaggyford rather than walking it twice, since the trail and the line run side by side. Traffic-free trackbed makes this the safest long off-lead walk in the North Pennines, with the South Tyne close by for a drink, but the viaducts have open parapets, sheep graze the adjoining fields, and dogs must be on a lead on the train.

Two and three quarter miles with 80 metres of climbing, an easy hour and a quarter up the South Tyne from Garrigill to a waterfall you can walk behind, returning on the trail above. Start at the village green in Garrigill, where roadside parking is free but limited to perhaps fifteen considerate spaces, so a weekday is easier. Pools and cascades all the way up give a dog constant water and shallow paddling, the wooded gorge section is fine off the lead, and the only cares are the wet rock behind the fall itself and the sheep in the meadows either side.

Five miles and 230 metres of climbing in about two and a half hours, up the old carriers’ road to Pennypie House, out along the heather of Blanchland Moor and back down to the Derwent. Start at the free car park at the entrance to Blanchland village, about 30 spaces and the only parking there is. Big open moorland running for a dog that will come back, with burns to drink from and no traffic, but this is a managed grouse moor grazed by sheep where ground-nesting birds mean leads from March to July, and the National Park’s Take the Lead signage applies on the open ground.

Three and a half miles with 140 metres of climbing, an hour and a half up the Shildon Burn past the old lead-mine engine house, over the hill on a bridleway and back down the Derwent by Baybridge. Start from the free village car park just before the bridge at Blanchland, which holds about 30 cars and is the only sensible parking in this single-street estate village. Riverside and woodland where a dog can safely be loose with the Derwent to swim in, but the middle section crosses grazed pasture with gates, and the lane past Baybridge is narrow with fast cars in summer.

An old lead mine yard on the Nenthead road, now a bunkhouse and campsite used mostly by C2C cyclists and walkers. Well-behaved dogs are welcome on the campsite at no extra charge, provided they are on a lead at all times. The bunkhouse pages do not state a dog policy, so ask if you want a bed rather than a pitch.

A two-room bed and breakfast a mile out of Allendale village, looking over its own field and garden in the heart of the North Pennines. Dogs are welcome on a lead in the house as well as the grounds, and there is no extra charge for them, which is unusual at this size of place. Allendale's pubs, tea rooms and 1874 co-operative store are the mile back down the lane.

A narrow-gauge line running north out of Alston up the South Tyne valley, worked by steam and diesel on a former branch line. The railway states plainly that it is dog friendly, so a dog can travel with you rather than wait in the car. Combine it with the riverside path back for a there-and-walk-home outing.