Dog-friendly walks in Loftus

Loftus's main open space, between Coronation Road and Westfield Terrace, with a bowling green, a pavilion, a rebuilt play area and a network of footpaths through grass and new planting. It is one of the seven formal parks named in the borough dog Public Spaces Protection Order, which means dogs must be on a lead here at all times: a fixed lead no longer than two metres, or an extendable one not extended beyond four metres, with a £100 fixed penalty and up to £1,000 in court. Dogs are also barred from the fenced children's play area and from the multi-use games area beside the skate park, both of which are covered by separate provisions of the same order. The order runs to 30 June 2028. It is a twenty-minute lead walk rather than a destination, but it is level, lit and the only enclosed green in the middle of the town.

North out of Loftus down the lane to Hummersea, then east along the Cleveland Way under Boulby, the highest cliff on the east coast of England, before turning inland on the lanes back into town. Tees Valley Wildlife Trust manages the Hummersea maritime slope and states dogs must be on a lead, that visitors should stay on the Cleveland Way rather than going through the reserve, and that the old access down to the beach no longer exists: the slope is liable to landslip and ends in a high cliff edge. Take that seriously, because there is no way off the cliff on this stretch and nothing between the path and the drop. The reward is a mile and a half of empty clifftop with the potash mine headgear behind you and Staithes ahead.