Dog-friendly walks in Carlisle

The city's standard dog circuit: out of the Bitts Park car park on Dacre Road behind the castle, east along the Eden past the bowling greens, over the Memorial suspension bridge into Rickerby Park, a loop of the park to the obelisk and back down the north bank to Eden Bridge. Rickerby Park is grazed, so there is stock on the grass most of the year and the field gates matter more than the map does. The return leg runs west through Bitts Park to the Sheepmount athletics ground, where the Hadrian's Wall Path carries on along the river. Cumberland Council's PSPO puts no lead requirement on either park, but it does exclude dogs from the fenced play area and skate park, which sit right on the line of the walk.

Open parkland off Wigton Road on the west side of the city, laid out over medieval ridge and furrow that still shows in low sun. A network of surfaced paths links the restored Georgian Garden, the Manor grounds with their old trees and rebuilt ha-ha, a hay meadow that is cut once a year, and football pitches. It is a good short-legged or elderly-dog walk: nothing steep, everything surfaced, and a free car park at the community centre. Cumberland Council states no lead requirement and no exclusion here, only the duty to clear up, which carries a fine up to £1,000.

A short, flat suburban circuit round the old claypit boating pond off Blackwell Road and out through the grass of Upperby Park, which is what south Carlisle actually walks its dogs on before work. The perimeter path round the water is tarmac and pushchair-flat; the park end is mown grass with mature trees, and Cumberland Council has been planting 300 more of them under the Start with the Park scheme. The pond holds ducks and swans all year, so this is not a place to let a bird-minded dog swim. The new skate park and the fenced play area are both dog-free ground.

Two council-run woodland reserves either side of Kingmoor Road on the north edge of the city, joined by the old railway cycleway, and the nearest thing Carlisle has to a proper woodland walk without driving. The southern reserve has a short surfaced accessible loop from the Kingmoor Road car park and then a network of unsurfaced, uneven paths through mixed woodland; the northern reserve is quieter, with benches and the cycleway running the length of it. There is no lead requirement and no exclusion here - the council's only stated dog rule is fouling, and it is a criminal offence not to clean up after your dog, with a fine up to £1,000. Ground gets soft between the two reserves after rain.