Dog-friendly walks in Wells Next the Sea

A three-mile hour-and-a-half loop on soft sand, boardwalk and needle-carpeted forest track, out past the stilted beach huts and back through the pines on the inland side of the dune ridge. It starts and finishes at the Pinewoods pay-and-display car park at the end of Beach Road; the harbour miniature railway runs from the quay in season if you would rather not drive. Dogs are off lead on the open sand and in the pines, there is fresh water at the car park kiosk, but the marked no-dog area in front of the beach huts stands and now includes the sands where the seals haul out, so read the signs before you let go of the lead.

Eight and three quarter miles and the best part of four hours, flat throughout but exposed, out along the harbour wall and the Norfolk Coast Path to Stiffkey and back over the fields by the Whirligig. Start at the quay in Wells, where the long-stay car park sits behind the harbour and is pay and display all year; the Coasthopper bus makes a one-way version easy. There are stiles and kissing gates on the field return that a very large dog will need lifting over, cattle graze the Freshes and the saltmarsh creeks fill fast on a rising tide, so leads on for the grazing sections and keep an eye on the water.

Six and a half miles in about two and three quarter hours, almost dead flat, running west along the sand from the Wells beach huts, in through the pine belt to Holkham village and back on the raised bank and the Norfolk Coast Path. Start at the Pinewoods car park at the end of Beach Road, a mile north of the town, which is pay and display and busy from breakfast in August; the harbour miniature railway saves the walk back if you prefer. Dogs run free on the open sand between the two beach car parks, but Wells keeps a no-dog area in front of the beach huts that now extends to cover the sands where the seals haul out, and from Holkham Gap westwards the marked breeding zones require leads between 1 April and 31 August.