Dog-friendly Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough's Victorian town park, thirty hectares between Linthorpe Road and Park Vale Road, opened in 1868 and still the busiest dog-walking ground in the town. This circuit follows the perimeter path from the Linthorpe Road gates by the Dorman Museum, along the inside of Park Road North, round past the boating lake at the Park Vale Road end and back. Everything is tarmac and lit, the gates open at 7.30am and lock at 10pm, and there is a cafe in the visitor centre. The one thing to know before you set off is that the park lies inside the TS1 Public Spaces Protection Order area, so this is a lead walk rather than a free run.

Forty-two acres of steep wooded banks, becks and wetland in a cleft below Coulby Newham, the old grounds of Gunnergate Hall and now a Green Flag site. The perimeter walk from Gunnergate Lane runs round the lake, past the bird hide and the carved wooden statues, and climbs the wooded sides on paths the council itself warns are uneven. It is the muddiest ground in Middlesbrough after rain and the closest thing the town has to a proper wood. Middlesbrough's only Public Spaces Protection Order covers the TS1 town centre, so there is no lead requirement here and no seasonal ban.

A hundred and twenty acres in Marton, on the south edge of Middlesbrough, with open parkland on the northern half and mature woodland and arboretum on the southern half. The perimeter loop starts at the main car park off The Grove and takes in both lakes, the trim trail and the ground behind the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum. Middlesbrough has only one Public Spaces Protection Order and it covers the TS1 town-centre area, not Marton, so there is no lead requirement here and no seasonal ban of any kind; the wildfowl on the lakes and the animal paddocks are the reason to keep a recall dog close rather than any order. Open 7.30am to 10pm daily, cafe and toilets on site.