Dog-friendly walks in Haytor Vale

Four and a half miles between Dartmoor's two most famous tors, two and a half hours with 260 metres of climbing on the granite setts of the old quarry tramway, open moor grass and one rough drop to the Becka Brook. Start at the lower Haytor car park on the Bovey Tracey to Widecombe road, where roadside parking is free but strung out along the moor edge and full by ten on any fine day; the seasonal Haytor Hoppa bus links the tors on summer Saturdays. This is open access land with cattle, sheep and ponies loose across all of it, so dogs must be on a lead from 1 March to 31 July for lambing and ground-nesting birds and near stock at any time of year, the flooded quarry pools are deep and steep-sided, and the brook at the bottom is the only safe drinking water.