Dog-friendly walks in Grassington

One of the largest broadleaved woodlands in the Dales, an ash wood on limestone terraces a mile up the lane from Grassington. Dogs are welcome but must be on a lead throughout this Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve, which shelters rare woodland flowers. Public footpaths and a well-surfaced access track, though steep and rocky in places and slippery when wet.

Six and a half miles and about three hours, down the Dales Way beside the Wharfe past Linton Falls and the 1885 Hebden suspension bridge to Burnsall, returning on the far bank and the lane through Hebden village. The going is easy riverside meadow with a few short pulls, though it floods in winter; start from the National Park Centre car park in Grassington, where the Dales Bus from Ilkley and Skipton stops. Sheep graze almost every field and there are stone stiles and step stiles the length of the route, most with a dog hole but a few without; the Wharfe gives shallow gravel entries near Burnsall for a swim, but Loup Scar is a rock gorge with a deep fast channel and no way out.

Three level miles in an hour and a half from Grassington down Sedber Lane to the roaring limestone steps of Linton Falls, on to Linton's green and its packhorse bridge, and back by field paths. The going is easy and mostly surfaced or grassy, though the falls footbridge steps are slippery in wet weather; park at the National Park Centre in Grassington, where the Dales Bus from Skipton and Ilkley calls. A good short outing for a stiff old dog with almost no climbing, and the Wharfe above the falls has quiet shallows for a drink, but the falls themselves are a violent chute with no exit and the field paths carry sheep and a handful of stone stiles.