Dog-friendly Aldbrough St John

A nineteenth-century inn on High Green, facing the long village green at Aldbrough St John on the lane between Melsonby and Piercebridge. The pub states that well behaved dogs are always welcome, whether you are stopping for a drink, eating a meal or staying a few nights in the rooms, so the welcome covers the bar, the dining side and the bedrooms alike. Seven guest rooms have been restored above and behind the pub. Dinner is served Thursday to Saturday and Monday with lunch on Saturday and Sunday, so a midweek walk here will not always find the kitchen open.

A short round from one of the largest village greens in the country, out west on the footpath along the north side of Aldbrough Beck and back on the path to the south, so it is a genuine loop rather than the same field twice. Under two miles, almost flat, and mostly grass and field-edge path rather than road, which makes it the best short walk in this cluster of villages for a dog that wants to be off the lead. There is no seasonal dog ban and no lead order in Aldbrough St John, because North Yorkshire's seasonal controls apply only to parts of Scarborough, Filey and Whitby. Fouling is the one enforced offence, at a £50 fixed penalty in the Richmondshire area and up to £1,000 on conviction.

West out of Aldbrough St John on the field path north of the beck, on past Stanwick St John church and up to the English Heritage section of Iron Age rampart on the B6274 at Carkin. It is a mile and a half each way on soft ground, and it is the walk that makes sense of the earthwork, because you approach the bank across the land it was built to enclose rather than stepping out of a car beside it. Dogs must go on the lead for the guardianship site at the far end, where English Heritage admits dogs on leads to restricted areas only. There is no seasonal ban and no lead order on the field path itself, but it crosses working farmland the whole way.