Dog-friendly Acle

A public house and restaurant on the Norwich road side of Acle, known locally for its pies. Four-legged friends are welcome throughout, which is unusual enough among Broadland dining pubs to be worth the detour. Acle Bridge and the Bure moorings are a mile away.

Five and a half miles and around two and three quarter hours, flat throughout, along the Bure from Acle Bridge to the windpump at Upton Dyke and back through Upton village and the fen edge on lane and field path. Start at the free riverside parking at Acle Bridge on the A1064 beside the inn and the moorings, which is generous but fills with anglers at weekends. Dogs are welcome under effective control on the rights of way, but Norfolk Wildlife Trust admits assistance dogs only on Upton Fen itself and requires leads on all its other paths, the dykes are deep and steep-sided, and cattle graze the marsh compartments from spring to autumn.

Seven and a half miles and three and a half hours on the Weavers' Way, which runs 61 miles from Cromer to Great Yarmouth and gives its emptiest miles here, out along the Bure to Stokesby and back across the Halvergate marshes, the largest expanse of grazing marsh in Britain. Start at the free riverside car park at Acle Bridge; there is no water, shade or shelter once you are out on the marsh, so carry your own for both of you. This is cattle country the whole way with drainage dykes instead of fences, so a lead is needed for most of the crossing, and the drainage mills give the only landmarks in a landscape with no hedges at all.