Dog-friendly walks in Levisham

A five-mile moorland circuit from Saltergate car park on the A169 around the Devil's Punchbowl - a natural amphitheatre 400 feet deep and half a mile across - over Levisham Moor and back through the rocky ravine of Dundale Griff, with an optional diversion to Skelton Tower above Newton Dale. Sheep and cattle graze the whole route, so dogs stay on leads or close to heel throughout. Boggy in places after rain; a proper moorland leg-stretch.

Eight miles and 360 metres of climbing in something under four hours, starting flat along the floor of Newton Dale beside the steam railway before a steep pull out of the dale to Levisham village. The obvious start is Levisham station car park, and the walk works beautifully as a train day out from Pickering or Grosmont on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. There is water in the beck all the way up the dale and long off-lead stretches through Levisham Wood, but sheep graze the dale sides and the moor edge, and the railway is live, so leads at every crossing.