Dog-friendly walks in Settle

Four miles and around two and a half hours through the finest limestone amphitheatre in Craven, past Warrendale Knotts and the cave mouths of Victoria and Jubilee, with a long steep climb out of the town to start and rocky, slippery ground in places. Start from Settle market place; parking is pay-and-display and Settle station on the Settle-Carlisle line is five minutes away, which makes this one of the few Dales walks you can do properly by train. This is open access limestone grazing with sheep everywhere and short leads required from 1 March to 31 July for ground-nesting birds, there are ladder stiles over the walls that no dog can climb, and the cave entrances and scar edges are unfenced drops.

Five and a quarter miles round in about two and a half hours, following the Ribble Way north out of Settle through riverside meadows to the limestone shelves of Stainforth Force and its seventeenth-century packhorse bridge, returning by the lane and field paths on the far side. Nearly flat and easy going apart from mud after rain; start at Settle market place and use the pay-and-display car parks, or take the train and walk from the station. The pool below Stainforth Force is the best-known dog swim in Ribblesdale with a shallow shelf to get in and out, though the current is strong when the river is up; the meadows carry sheep and cattle, and the Ribble Way has a number of narrow stone stiles that will stop a large dog.