Dog-friendly Withernsea

A town-centre pub on Queen Street set back just off the promenade, open eleven till eleven seven days a week and keeping three changing cask beers, which is more than most of the seafront can manage. There is free pool Monday to Thursday evenings, karaoke on Friday nights, Sky sports and its own parking. Four letting rooms are available upstairs but no policy is published either way about dogs in them, so ring ahead if you want to stay. Dogs are welcome in the pub with no area restriction recorded, on CAMRA branch evidence from a survey dated 11 December 2024 rather than the pub’s own words.

A small traditional local at the seaward end of Queen Street in Withernsea, a two-minute walk from the inland lighthouse and the Kay Kendall museum in its base. There is cask ale on, recently including beers from Aitchesons of Yorkshire, plus board games, a bit of cosy outdoor seating, a car park yard and karaoke on Thursday afternoons. It is a drinking pub rather than a food pub, which suits a wet dog and a pair of sandy boots after the beach. Dogs are welcome with no area restriction recorded, on CAMRA branch evidence rather than the pub’s own words.

A straightforward pub on Queen Street, the main road through Withernsea, set just back from the beach front and open from eleven every day and from ten on a Saturday. There is a garden, a separate bar, sports television and accommodation upstairs, though nothing is published about whether dogs may stay in the rooms. Cask ale is not currently available here, so it is keg, lager and spirits. It is the sort of plain seaside local that will not mind sand on the floor. Dogs are welcome with no area restriction recorded, on CAMRA branch evidence from the Hull and East Yorkshire branch rather than the pub’s own words.

Built as a private house in 1893 by Captain William Newman and now a fully refurbished pub sitting right on The Promenade with panoramic North Sea views from the front windows. Four changing cask beers are kept, with Great Newsome from four miles inland at Winestead, Bradfield and Timothy Taylor among the regular brewers, and there is a garden at the front with a patio to the side, a real fire and its own parking. Food runs Thursday to Sunday, lunches from noon and evening meals from five. It also lets five en-suite bed and breakfast rooms and three chalets, though no rule is published about dogs sleeping in them so ask when you book. Dogs are welcome in the pub, on CAMRA branch evidence from a survey dated 14 February 2024 rather than the pub’s own words.

A plain old-fashioned pub at the far inland end of Queen Street in Withernsea, one small room fronting the main road through the town and a larger room behind. It keeps one changing cask beer, holds Cask Marque accreditation, has a real fire, a separate bar, newspapers and a garden, and does lunches noon to three plus early evening meals Monday to Saturday. Children are allowed until half nine and the atmosphere is quiet rather than loud. Dogs are welcome with no area restriction recorded, on CAMRA branch evidence rather than the pub’s own words.

Withernsea’s 1881 lifeboat station on Seaside Road, thirty seconds from the promenade and the Pier Towers, reopened as a bar in 2016 with the original features left in place. It is one rectangular room with three changing cask ales, usually including Great Newsome or Wold Top under LocAle, plus keg, wine and cider, and there is deliberately no loud music, no television and no fruit machine. Board games and cards are out on the tables and there is an elevated verandah at the front to sit on with a wet dog after the beach. It opens Thursday to Sunday only. The CAMRA entry records it plainly as children and dogs welcome, which is branch evidence rather than the bar’s own words.

A busy locals’ pub on Queen Street, the main road running back from Withernsea seafront, about ten minutes’ walk from the Pier Towers. There is a garden with picnic tables, darts, sports television, live entertainment at weekends and a restaurant serving locally sourced food from noon, until eight Monday to Thursday and until six at weekends. Be warned that cask ale is not available here, so it is keg and lager only. Dogs are welcome with no area restriction recorded, on CAMRA branch evidence rather than the pub’s own words.

Start at the north end of Withernsea's concrete promenade, past the last of the sea wall, and every step of this walk is outside the summer dog exclusion. The council's order bans dogs only between the first groyne north of the access ramp opposite Seaside Road and the beach access steps at Pier Tower, which is the short central stretch by the town, so from the north end onwards the sand is open all year with no lead requirement. The wall gives out and the boulder clay cliff takes over, low at first and then rising past Waxholme, where whole fields have gone and the field boundaries end in mid-air. Two and a half miles on you reach Sand le Mere at Tunstall, where the Greenwich Meridian crosses the beach. Go on a falling tide, because at high water the sea reaches the clay in places and there is no way up, and keep out from the foot of the cliff.

A short flat town circuit that works in any weather and stays clear of the summer beach ban entirely, because the order only touches the sand and not the promenade above it. Start at the two mock-castle Pier Towers on Pier Road, walk the concrete promenade south past the shelters to where the sea wall gives out at the south end, then turn inland and come back up Queen Street through the shops. The odd part is the lighthouse: Withernsea’s stands 127 feet high in the middle of a residential street, Hull Road, a good three hundred yards from the sea, because the town grew around it. Its garden and cafe sit at the foot. Loop back down Seaside Road to the towers. It is pavement all the way, so a lead is sensible on the road sections, and the promenade takes the wind straight off the North Sea.

From the south end of Withernsea’s concrete promenade this walk is outside the summer dog exclusion from the first step, because the council order only covers the sand between the first groyne north of the access ramp opposite Seaside Road and the beach access steps at Pier Tower. South of the sea wall the defences stop dead and the boulder clay cliff begins, rising steadily past the golf course and the old wartime pillboxes that have slid down onto the sand. Three miles on you are below Holmpton, where a track from the end of Chapel Lane gives the only way up. There are no facilities and no lifeguard south of the town. Walk it on a falling tide, because the sea reaches the clay at high water and there is no escape, and keep well out from the cliff foot.