Dog-friendly Howden

A large open-plan bar with three distinct areas off it, on Bridgegate a couple of hundred yards down from Howden Market Place and the minster ruins, with nine letting rooms above and free parking behind. It is the biggest bar in the town and the one with room to spread out on a wet afternoon off the Ouse floodbank. CAMRA records the bar as dog friendly, with no area excluded. That is a branch survey rather than the hotel's own words, and no bedroom policy for dogs is published anywhere, so ring before you book a room with a dog.

A one-room micropub at 3 Market Place, in the old tailor's shop it is named after, looking straight across the square at the minster and its roofless chancel. Three cask beers from regional breweries and several craft kegs, no music, no machines and conversation at the single bar, which is exactly the sort of room a dog can lie under a bench in. It opens evenings only, five until eleven Monday and Thursday to Saturday and from three on Sunday, so plan the walk round it. CAMRA records it as dog friendly with no area excluded, surveyed in February 2026, which is a branch survey rather than the pub's own words.

An Old Mill Brewery pub with rooms on Bridgegate, two minutes' walk from Howden Minster and the Market Place, serving the brewery's own ales and homemade food. The pub's own page draws a clear line for dogs: they are allowed in the bar area but not in the restaurant and not in the bedrooms, so this is a stop for a pint after a walk round the minster rather than a base for a dog holiday. There is free parking on site and the town's flat lanes lead out to the Ouse floodbank at Boothferry within a mile. Check-in runs 4pm to 9pm.

Out of Howden Market Place under the minster's ruined chancel, west along Knedlington Road to the hamlet of Knedlington, then south across the fields to the Ouse flood bank a mile above Boothferry Bridge. The bank top is the best of it: a grassy shelf ten feet above a river that is genuinely tidal this far inland, with the 1929 bridge ahead and the whole flat parish behind. The return climbs off the bank at Asselby Lane and comes back into town along Bridgegate past the Wellington. It is entirely flat, but the ings between Knedlington and the bank are grazed most of the year and there are no fences at the water.

A pocket of flood meadow, reedbed and open pond at Marsh End, barely three minutes on foot from Howden Market Place and the minster, managed by Howden Town Council as a local nature reserve. A flat surfaced route and a boardwalk laid on the bed of the dismantled railway carry you right round the water, with no fence or barrier at the pond edge, which is worth knowing if your dog goes straight in. The council's own visitor entry says dogs are welcome, that you must pick up and keep the dog under close control, and asks you to remember that not every visitor is comfortable around dogs. There is no car park here at all, so use the free on-street parking on Hailgate or the Market Place and walk down Marsh End.

The parish church of St Peter and St Paul fills the whole east side of Howden Market Place, and behind it stand the roofless fourteenth-century chancel and octagonal chapter house, kept by English Heritage and open to walk round at any reasonable daylight hours for nothing. English Heritage's own page for the site says dogs on leads are welcome, so you can take a dog right up to the tracery and the shattered vault. There is no car park and no access to the interior of the ruins, only the outside; use the pay and display in the Market Place and walk in through the churchyard gate off Hailgate. The ground inside the ruin is uneven old stone and nothing is fenced off, so keep a short lead.