Dog-friendly Saltburn by the Sea

A seafood restaurant in the Foreshore Building on the Lower Promenade, directly above the sand and looking along the pier to Hunt Cliff, with a fish and chip shop on the ground floor. Its own site states the terrace is open and that it is happy to accommodate dogs when the weather is dry, which is the whole of the published policy: the terrace only, and only in dry weather, with nothing said about the dining room inside. Open every day from 11.30am with last tables at 8.30pm, and you need to book if you are eating in rather than taking away. Cat Nab car park is a hundred yards away.

The Cleveland Way climbs out of Saltburn from Cat Nab on a surfaced ramp and then runs east along the top of Hunt Cliff, among the highest cliffs on the east coast of England, as far as the gate below Warsett Hill. Tees Valley Wildlife Trust manages the cliff as a nature reserve and its instruction is unambiguous: keep dogs on a lead, clear up after your animals, do not disturb the wildlife. The cliff slope itself has no paths and cannot be entered, and the coast path is unsurfaced, undulating and in places close to an unfenced edge, so this is a short-lead walk rather than a loose one. Kittiwakes and fulmars nest on the face below and the whole of Tees Bay is laid out behind you on the way back.

Saltburn Gill is a fifty-acre ancient woodland SSSI running up a hidden side valley from Saltburn Road towards the playing fields at the Brotton edge, and it is the sheltered alternative when Hunt Cliff is unwalkable. Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, which manages it, states that dogs must be on a lead, that you clear up after them, and that there are no dog waste bins on the reserve at all: bins are in Saltburn and at the playing fields by the Brotton exit, so you carry it the length of the gill. Paths are unsurfaced and uneven with rocks, roots and numerous flights of steps, and there is no access for anything but foot traffic. Nearest parking is the pay and display at Cat Nab, with some free on-street space in Saltburn itself.

Skelton Beck runs down a wooded ravine behind Saltburn and the path follows it from Cat Nab past the miniature railway, the Italian garden and the woodland centre, then on under the Halfpenny Bridge viaduct into Rifts Wood before looping back on the other bank. The borough dog PSPO puts a lead requirement on named parts of the Valley Gardens only, the Italian garden and tea rooms, the walled garden and the woodland centre, with a £100 fixed penalty and a maximum of £1,000 in court; the woodland beyond those areas carries no lead order. The beck is shallow and reachable in several places, the tree cover means it is walkable in a gale, and the whole loop is a comfortable hour and a quarter. The order runs to 30 June 2028.

Self-catering lodges in the grounds of Rushpool Hall on Saltburn Lane, set back in the woods above Skelton Beck about a mile from Saltburn seafront. The operator's own site describes them as dog-friendly self-catering holiday homes, which is the whole of the published policy: no limit on numbers, no charge and no house rules are stated anywhere on the site. The Valley Gardens path runs down through the woods from here to Cat Nab and the beach, so you can walk to the sand without driving. Rushpool Hall itself, the hotel in the same grounds, publishes no dog policy at all and is a separate booking.

A large hotel standing above Saltburn Bank at the head of the valley, a few minutes' walk down to the pier, the cliff lift and the sand. Its own Cleveland Way page tells walkers to book into one of the hotel's dog friendly bedrooms, so dogs are taken in a specified set of rooms rather than throughout. The hotel does not publish which bar or dining rooms dogs may use, nor a nightly dog charge, so both need confirming when you book. It is the obvious base for anyone starting the Cleveland Way coastal section, which leaves from the Saltburn seafront below.