Dog-friendly walks in Fowey

Three and a half miles round the Gribbin headland to the red and white daymark tower, about two and a quarter hours with 170 metres of climbing and views the length of St Austell Bay. Start from the National Trust car park at Menabilly Barton, a field car park up a narrow lane off the Fowey to Par road, and walk down past the lakes to Polridmouth. No stiles anywhere on the route, Polridmouth beach takes dogs all year and the lake behind it is the swim, but the headland is grazed and the coast path either side of the daymark runs along an unfenced edge with a long drop.

Three and a third miles from Fowey’s own little beach out to Daphne du Maurier’s cove and back inland, an easy two hours with one stiff set of steps up from St Catherine’s Castle. Readymoney has a very small car park that is usually full, so most people walk down from the town car parks or take the summer bus. One stone stile, reported to give dogs no trouble, and Polridmouth allows dogs all year with a lake to swim in behind the beach; Readymoney itself is restricted in high summer and the clifftop between the two is unfenced.

Four miles of wooded estuary terrace linked by two small ferries, a little over two hours with 140 metres of climbing and a memorial to Q on the best-placed bench in Cornwall. It starts at Fowey Town Quay: leave the car in the Hanson Drive or Caffa Mill car parks above the town, because Fowey itself is a one-way maze, and take the Bodinnick ferry across to begin. There is one stile and a gate beside it, so no dog is stopped, and both ferries carry dogs; the Pont Pill woods give shade and a creek, but the drop off the terrace path is steep and there are sheep in the fields above Lanteglos.