Dog-friendly walks in Hathersage

Three and a half easy miles and about an hour and three quarters through riverside meadows to Leadmill Bridge and back by field paths under Hathersage Booths. Start from the Oddfellows Road car park in the village, pay-and-display and usually the easiest parking in the Hope Valley, with the station five minutes away. The Derwent here is broad, slow and shallow at the bridge and is the best swim in the valley for a dog that likes deep water, but the meadows are grazed by cattle for much of the year so a two-metre lead is needed near them, and there are half a dozen stone squeeze stiles.

Just under six miles and about three and a quarter hours, climbing 350 metres out of the Derwent valley to the boulder crown of Higger Tor and the Iron Age wall of Carl Wark. Park in the Oddfellows Road pay-and-display in Hathersage, which is cheap and rarely full, and the Fox House bus can shorten the return; the Burbage bridge lay-bys are the alternative if you want a shorter version. This is Eastern Moors land where dogs must be on a lead of no more than two metres on open access ground from 1 March to 31 July and at all times around the cattle that graze Burbage, the peat groughs on the tor are deep enough to swallow a small dog, and Burbage Brook is the reliable water.

Six miles and about three and a half hours along the top of the longest gritstone edge in the Peak, with a steady 340-metre climb and a wide flagged path underfoot. Start from the Hollin Bank car park below the edge on the North Lees estate, run by the national park and pay-and-display; it takes about 60 cars and is full by half nine on climbing weekends, with lay-bys on the Ringinglow road as a fallback. The whole estate is national park land where dogs are welcome, but sheep graze the plantations and moor edge and a two-metre fixed lead is required near them and from 1 March to 31 July for the ground-nesting birds; the edge itself is an unfenced drop of up to 20 metres, so a loose dog is a bad idea in mist.