Dog-friendly walks in Alston

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.