Dog-friendly walks in Sheffield

The largest ancient semi-natural woodland in South Yorkshire, dominated by oak and birch, with more than fifteen kilometres of public footpaths and no admission charge at any hour. The Woodland Discovery Centre off Abbey Lane has toilets in the car park as well as inside, and the Woodland Coffee Stop does hot drinks and light lunches; the Abbeydale Miniature Railway runs in the same clearing. This is council land, so the city's Responsible Dog Walking Code of Conduct applies rather than any order: dogs in sight and under control, on a lead if recall is unreliable, short leads from March to August on ecologically sensitive ground, and out of the streams. The paths are wide and well used, and the woods drain reasonably well but the lower sections by the Limb Brook stay muddy through winter.

Sheffield's largest park at over two hundred acres, spread across the ridge between Norton Lees and Woodseats, and unusual for a city park in being mostly grazing pasture and woodland rather than mown grass. Streams run through the bottom of the valleys and there are ponds near the Cobnar Road end. Graves Park Animal Farm sits in the middle of it with rare breed cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry in fenced paddocks, and the council's own dog code asks you to avoid disturbing grazing animals and give them space, which here means a lead anywhere near the farm fields. Paths are a mix of tarmac and dirt and there is a cafe, toilets and free parking at several entrances.

The Rivelin runs down a wooded valley from the dams at Rails to Malin Bridge, and the trail beside it passes twenty-odd former mill dams, goits and wheel pits from the cutlery trade, most of them now still ponds full of ducks. This is council land, so the city's Responsible Dog Walking Code of Conduct is what governs it: dogs in sight and under control, on a lead if recall is not reliable, short leads from March to August on the sensitive stretches, out of the water and on the paths. The river is shallow and easy to get into for most of the length, which is exactly why the code asks you not to. Rivelin Park Cafe, the water play area and the toilets are all at the Malin Bridge end.

A strip of green squeezed between the River Don, the railway and Attercliffe Road, reclaimed from post-industrial ground and now a Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust reserve on the line of the Five Weirs Walk. It is the useful bit of green in an otherwise hard part of the city: the Don runs fast beside it, kingfishers and grey wagtails work the weirs, and the surfaced riverside path carries on west into the city centre and east towards Meadowhall. The Trust's rule for the reserve is dogs on a lead. The river bank is steep and unfenced in stretches and the path is shared with commuting cyclists.

Two and three quarter miles of level towpath from Victoria Quays at the back of the city centre out through Attercliffe to Tinsley Marina, following the canal that opened in 1819 and the steel works that grew up along it. The Canal and River Trust's own route runs past art trail pieces, lock gates and the Bacon Lane and Cadman Street bridges, and the surface is made up all the way, so it works in any weather and with a buggy. The Trust does not require a lead but does require dogs under close control and picked up after, and the unfenced edge, the locks and the cyclists mean most people clip on anyway. It is a linear walk: the tram from Tinsley back into town saves the return leg.

The best-known dog walk in Sheffield and one of the easiest to reach, running two miles up the Porter Brook from Endcliffe Park at Hunter's Bar through Bingham Park, Whiteley Woods and Shepherd Wheel to the dam and cafe at Forge Dam. The brook is shallow, stony and accessible at dozens of points, the paths are surfaced almost throughout and there are cafes at both ends. It is all council land under the city's Responsible Dog Walking Code of Conduct, which asks for dogs out of the waterways as well as in sight and under control, and short leads from March to August on the sensitive stretches. Playgrounds at Endcliffe and Forge Dam are fenced. Return the same way, or drop onto Rustlings Road for a road finish.