Dog-friendly walks in Sawley

Eavestone Lake & Fishpond Wood

Three and a half miles and roughly an hour and a half around a monks' fishpond turned wooded lake, following the Ripon Rowel east through Fishpond Wood and back by Picking Gill nature reserve, on rooty, rocky woodland paths with a gritstone crag standing over the water. Start from the small roadside parking on the lane at Eavestone, south-west of Sawley village and signed off the B6265 Ripon to Pateley Bridge road; there are no facilities at the start, so bring what you need. It is quiet, shaded and one of the better spots in the district to let a steady dog off in the trees, but the lake sides are steep and the surrounding fields are grazed, so leads on where you leave the wood.