Dog-friendly The South Devon Coast

A seafood pub a stone's throw from the shingle at Beesands, on the coast path between Kingsbridge and Dartmouth. Dogs are made as welcome as people, with water bowls and biscuits in the front bar and in part of the restaurant, so this is a place you can eat properly rather than perch outside. Seven bed and breakfast rooms upstairs.

A small pub on the Strand at Shaldon, where the passenger ferry crosses to Teignmouth. Families and well-behaved dogs are welcome, and the beer garden looks straight out over the beach and the Teign estuary.

A big, plain seaside pub above the slipway at Hope Cove, with rooms and a terrace facing Bigbury Bay. As a St Austell managed house dogs are welcome inside with a water bowl and dog biscuits, which matters here because Mouthwell Sands below is closed to them through the middle of the day in summer.

A tiny creekside pub up a dead-end lane from Salcombe harbour, with a serious kitchen and a South Hams reputation out of all proportion to its size. Its own description of itself puts dogs by the fire and locals at the bar, and the streamside terrace fills up on a rising tide.

A low-beamed village pub in Slapton, ten minutes' walk uphill from Slapton Sands and the Ley. The house rule is plainly stated: well-behaved dogs on leads and children welcome, which makes it a reliable stop at the end of a Start Bay walk.

A coaching inn on the Dartmouth quayside with two bars, log fires and rooms over the harbour. It is one of St Austell Brewery's managed houses, so dogs are welcome throughout the pub with a water bowl and biscuits as standard, and the hotel sells a dog-friendly stay outright rather than treating it as a favour.

A family-run shellfish shack and restaurant on the beach road at Beesands, selling crab, lobster and fish landed a few hundred yards away. Well-behaved dogs are part of the welcome, and the setting means a wet dog is nobody's crisis.

A beach brasserie at North Sands, Salcombe, doing barbecues, crab sandwiches and buckets of prawns. It bills itself as family and dog friendly, which is the useful pairing here: North Sands has no council dog ban, while South Sands round the corner is closed to dogs all summer.

Three point two miles of cliff and cove walking out to the fossil headland at Hope's Nose and back over the flat limestone top of Walls Hill, about two hours with 210 metres of climbing and several long flights of steps. Start at the pay-and-display car park on Anstey's Cove Road, a ten-minute walk from Kents Cavern and on the number 22 bus route; the descent to the cove itself is steep and Redgate Beach beyond it is fenced off because of rockfall. Anstey's Cove and Babbacombe are two of the Torbay beaches where dogs are allowed all year, so this is the reliable Torquay walk in August, but the meadow on Walls Hill is grazed in places and the cliff edges above Hope's Nose are unfenced and crumbling.

A gentle 3.2 miles of about an hour and three quarters over the dunes and low cliffs to Thurlestone Sand and the Thurlestone rock, returning through the village and by field paths, with only 130 metres of climbing and firm going throughout. Start at the paid Bantham Beach car park, which is run by the Bantham Estate and closes its gates in the evening, and note that the lane in from Buckland is narrow and busy with surfers all summer. The dog position is unusual here and worth getting right: the South Hams council order names only Bigbury, Mouthwell Sands at Hope Cove and Salcombe South Sands, so Bantham's own summer dog rules are set by the estate that owns the beach, while Thurlestone Sand a mile along the walk is dog-friendly with a stream to drink from.

A 3.7-mile circuit of about two hours from the shingle at Beesands past the ruins of the village the sea took at Hallsands, returning by tracks and green lanes with 200 metres of climbing and one long flight of steps. Start at the free seafront car park at Beesands, reached by narrow lanes from Stokenham, with the Cricket Inn and toilets beside it; the lanes are single track with passing places so a wing mirror is a genuine consideration in August. Beesands is a dog-friendly beach all year and the ley behind it holds fresh water, but the green lanes get overgrown in high summer, the fields hold sheep, and the cliff edge above Hallsands is undercut and unfenced.

An easy 1.6 miles round the flat limestone plateau of Berry Head, three quarters of an hour on surfaced level paths through two Napoleonic forts to Britain's highest and shortest lighthouse. The pay-and-display car park sits right on the headland and is the busiest in Brixham on a sunny day, though the paths are wide enough that it never feels crowded and a mobility scooter can be borrowed from the visitor centre. Dogs are welcome throughout the reserve and Shoalstone beach below stays open to them all year, but guillemots and kittiwakes nest on the quarry cliffs so keep to the fenced paths in spring, and Breakwater Beach at the far end of the walk is closed to dogs from 1 May to 30 September.

A challenging 6.5 miles of about three and a half hours, up the wooded Avon estuary on the Estuary Way, inland to the thatched village of Ringmore and back along open clifftop past Ayrmer Cove and Challaborough, with 330 metres of climbing and several short sharp descents. Start at the large pay-and-display car park above Bigbury-on-Sea, which looks out at Burgh Island and is the only substantial parking for miles; the 875 bus runs from Modbury on Fridays only, so plan on driving. Dogs get a long off-lead stretch on the estuary path and at Ayrmer Cove, and the Journey's End at Ringmore takes them, but the Bigbury beach where you park bars dogs between 10am and 7pm from 1 May to 30 September, and there is grazing stock in almost every field on the inland half.

A 3.2-mile circuit of about an hour and three quarters that climbs the lanes above Blackpool Sands to Strete for the long view over Slapton Ley to Start Point, then drops back to the beach on coast path, with 180 metres of climbing and muddy field sections after rain. The obvious start is the paid beach car park at Blackpool Sands on the A379, and this is the catch: the beach owners operate a Blue Flag seasonal ban that keeps dogs off the beach, out of the café and out of the car parks from 1 May to 30 September, so between those dates park in Strete instead and walk the loop the other way. Out of season it is one of the friendliest short walks on this coast, with shingle to throw stones on and sheltered water; in season expect stock in the fields, quiet but fast lanes, and no dog access to the sand at all.

A cliffside inn-with-spa dropped onto Babbacombe Beach, and one of the few smart hotels in Devon where the dog is not quietly shut out of dinner. Many of the rooms, suites, cottages, beach huts and beach suites take dogs, and they are permitted in the main restaurant and lounge, with beds, bowls and treats supplied and an A La Bark menu of sausages, chicken dinner and dog ice cream. The coast path starts on the property.

A long-established family-owned hotel above Thurlestone's golf links and beaches. Dogs stay in designated bedrooms for twenty pounds a night, though not in all Premier or Deluxe rooms and suites, and they are allowed in reception, the gardens, the Terrace Bar and the hotel's own Village Inn; the main hotel restaurant is not open to them.

A romantic Tudor ruin in a wooded valley outside Totnes, reputedly the most haunted castle in Devon. English Heritage lists it as one of its dog-friendly Devon sites, with dogs on leads; the approach is a single narrow lane, so parking is the constraint rather than the dog.

A gun fort wedged into the rocks at the mouth of the Dart, reached by a mile of coast path or the seasonal ferry from the town. English Heritage lists it among its dog-friendly places, with dogs on leads welcome around the site; the standing request is that leads go on around livestock and that you clear up.

Britain's oldest scheduled monument, a prehistoric cave system under a Torquay hillside. The caves themselves are closed to dogs and so is the Woodland Trail, but the gardens are open to them and the cafe describes itself as very dog friendly, which makes this a coffee stop rather than a day out with a dog in tow.