Dog-friendly York

York's flagship craft brewery on the bank of the Foss off Walmgate, with a 40-tap Bavarian-style beer hall, street-food kitchen and a covered riverside terrace. The brewery's own answer on dogs is emphatic — "We are! Please bring them. We love dogs" — and they even make their own dog snacks. Long benches leave plenty of floor space for bigger breeds.

Atmospheric gas-lit inn on High Petergate, on the site where Guy Fawkes was born in 1570, sitting in the shadow of the Minster. Well-behaved dogs are welcome in the bar and all three beer gardens, but not in the restaurant or the hotel bedrooms. Order from the bar menu and claim a spot by the fire.

The Lendal branch of York's famous medieval drinking den, with a wall of world beers, ancient timbers and hearty stews and boards. The venue's own line is that children and dogs are always welcome here — unlike the original Stonegate branch, which does not admit dogs at all. Weekends get busy, so aim for an afternoon pint if your dog prefers calm.

A child and dog friendly pub on Monkgate, a couple of minutes from Monk Bar and the walls, serving food with a garden at the back. Dogs are welcome inside rather than being kept to the yard. A useful city-centre stop well clear of the Stonegate crush.

York's smallest pub and a recent CAMRA city Pub of the Year, an Edwardian time capsule on Fossgate last redecorated in 1903. Dogs are welcome in the tiny bar and back room provided they stay off the furniture, and regulars' dogs doze in front of the fire while water bowls and treats appear from behind the bar. House rules ban large groups, so it suits one person and one calm hound best.

A big, easy-going Acomb local a mile west of the city walls, where dogs are welcome in every part of the pub rather than banished to the yard. Water bowls, treats and a dedicated dog menu come as standard, and the staff make a fuss of every arrival. Handy for a pint after the Hob Moor or Acomb Wood paths.

A comfortable roadside pub on Tadcaster Road at Dringhouses, listed as a child and dog friendly pub serving food, with a garden at the back. Dogs are welcome indoors. It sits beside the Knavesmire, which is the best open dog walk in south York.

A snug Victorian Nicholson's pub on Goodramgate, a stone's throw from the Minster, known for its rotating pie menu and well-kept cask ale. Dogs are welcome inside, with water bowls and treats offered to doggy visitors. A good first stop after an on-lead amble through Dean's Park below the Minster.

The village pub in Osbaldwick, on the eastern edge of York, which keeps a dog menu behind the bar and asks only that you mention your dog when you arrive. Dogs are welcome in the bar. Quiz nights, live music and a caravan field behind for anyone staying over.

York's best-known small music venue is also a proper pub, and its own listing states that dogs are welcome everywhere, including the bar. There is a very large beer garden behind, which suits a dog on a gig night as much as a quiet afternoon. Fulford Ings and the riverside path are a short walk away.

York's most haunted pub, first recorded in 1503, facing the Shambles with a wonky, story-filled interior and at least fifteen resident ghosts by local reckoning. Dogs are welcome inside and out, with water and treats on offer. Ghost-tour crowds fill it in the evening; the back bar and beer garden are the quieter berths.

A roomy suburban local on Beckfield Lane in Acomb, listed as child and dog friendly, with a garden behind. Dogs are welcome inside, which makes it a reliable end point for a circuit of Acomb Wood or the Rawcliffe paths. Straightforward beer and a genuine neighbourhood crowd.

A rambling 16th-century pub on Goodramgate, a short stroll from the Minster, with a covered courtyard and a warren of small rooms. It is listed as a child and dog friendly pub and keeps dog treats behind the bar. One of the easier central York pubs in which to find a quiet corner with a dog.

A tiny listed pub on George Street with a horseshoe bar, regular jazz nights and a paved beer garden tucked beneath the city walls. The pub states plainly that it is dog friendly, and at this scale your dog will be part of the conversation whether it likes it or not. A good finish to a walk of the walls.

A Castle Rock alehouse on Lawrence Street, just beyond Walmgate Bar, with a long line of handpumps and a dog-friendly policy set out among its facilities. It is a drinking pub rather than a dining room, which makes it an easy one to walk into with a dog. The walled yard at the back is a bonus in summer.

An independent back-street local in Clementhorpe, in a building of 1840 with stained glass recalling the old shipyard. CAMRA records it as dog friendly, and the rear garden fills up on summer evenings. A minute from the Ouse path and Rowntree Park.

An unaltered 1930s pub on CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors, wet-led with a superb rotating cask range and a proper drinking corridor. Well-behaved dogs on leads are very welcome and staff have been known to hand out biscuits; there is no food service, so no dining-room complications. A short stroll from the Bishopthorpe Road shops and the riverside.

A large, comfortable pub on Blossom Street just outside Micklegate Bar, listed as child and dog friendly and serving food through the day. Dogs are welcome indoors as well as in the garden. Well placed between the station, the racecourse and the walls.

Reputedly York's oldest licensed inn, trading since 1644 down a snickelway off Stonegate, with a rare beer garden that looks up at the Minster. Dogs are welcome inside and out, and water bowls and treats are kept ready for four-legged visitors. A natural pause on the Stonegate-to-Minster tourist trail.

All-day dining, brunches and cocktails in the grandly restored Electric Theatre — York's first cinema — on Fossgate. Dogs are welcome in the bar area, where the full menu is still served. High ceilings and generous spacing make it a roomy midweek option with a dog in tow.

Cafe bar in the old motor house tower at the end of Skeldergate Bridge, with a covered, heated river terrace looking along the Ouse. Dogs are welcome across its quirky rooms and on the terrace. Toasties, paninis and tapas in a prime position at the city end of the New Walk riverside loop.

Design-led, family-run cafe-restaurant at 112 Micklegate serving breakfast, brunch, lunch and afternoon tea amid rotating local art. Dogs are welcome indoors, and the woodsy, unhurried room is calm enough for nervier hounds. One of the city's best seasonal menus on the dog-friendly circuit.

A busy brunch and lunch spot at the city end of Bishopthorpe Road, cooking with local produce and doing it properly. The cafe is clear that dogs are welcome in the outside area but not indoors, so it is one to save for a fine morning. The pavement tables go quickly at weekends.

Library cafe in the lodge at Rowntree Park where you can borrow a book with your coffee and a generous slice of cake. Dogs get a water bowl and are welcome on the terrace, with one designated dog-friendly table inside. The Victorian park around it is an easy on-lead amble beside the Ouse.

Andrew Pern's riverside restaurant in the old Lendal engine house, with a terrace over the Ouse and a published dog policy rather than a vague promise. Dogs on leads may join you in the Bar and the River Room, where water is provided, but not in the carpeted Garden Room or private dining room. Book ahead and say you are bringing a dog.

Independent speciality coffee shop by day and craft beer and cocktail bar by night, with an industrial-chic reclaimed-timber interior and a small courtyard out the back. Dogs are welcome throughout and staff put down water bowls. Excellent toasties, and it sits on York's best food-and-drink street a few doors from the Blue Bell.

Tiny speciality coffee shop packed into the 14th-century Barker Tower on the riverbank beneath Lendal Bridge. It is renowned for being dog friendly, with water and treats for four-legged visitors and homemade cakes from its own bakery for the rest. Seats inside are few; the riverside benches outside catch the morning sun.

A North Street steakhouse with one of the better beer gardens in the city, and a name that rather commits it. Dogs are welcome in the garden and in the interior front dining room, though not through the rest of the restaurant. Adults only, and worth booking at weekends.

A pocket-sized local nature reserve on the south-west edge of the city, giving a mile of woodland and meadow paths in twenty-five easy minutes; a remnant of genuinely ancient woodland with bluebells in May and shade in a heatwave. Park on Acomb Wood Drive or Foxwood Lane and walk straight in, or take the number 4 bus to Foxwood; there are no gates or stiles a big dog cannot manage. Dogs are off lead throughout with no livestock, but the reserve is small, popular and close to housing, so recall matters; the woodland paths get properly claggy after rain and this is not the one to pick in a wet January.

Yorkshire Wildlife Trust's celebrated fenland reserve on York's south-west edge — Sir David Attenborough called it a cathedral of nature conservation — explored via a 750-metre boardwalk circuit. Dogs are allowed but must stay on a lead and keep to the boardwalk to protect the fragile peatland and its wildlife. Free entry at all times, with a small gravel car park off the A1036 near Askham Bar.

A two-mile perimeter circuit of one of York's four medieval strays, a big open triangle of grazing land on the northern edge of the city, level throughout and done in under an hour. Park on Wigginton Road or come out on the number 5 or 6 bus from the centre; the stray also links straight through to Haxby Road and the Foss on foot. Dogs get a proper off-lead gallop across the open grass, but cattle are turned out here through the summer and cows with calves will take an interest in a loose dog, so lead up and skirt them; the tracks round the edge drain reasonably and stay usable in winter, though the middle turns to a quagmire.

A flat 3.5-mile circuit of riverside floodplain meadows just downstream of Clifton Bridge, and one of York's favourite off-lead romps along the Ouse. Cattle graze parts of the Ings in summer, so read the field before unclipping and lead up around stock — there are alternative paths to route around a herd. These are working flood washlands: after heavy rain the whole area can be underwater, so check conditions first.

A mile and a half of ridge-and-furrow meadow, scrub and old airfield concrete tucked behind Clifton, level and quiet and easily done in half an hour, which makes it a sensible choice for an arthritic dog or a hot afternoon. Walk in from Rawcliffe Lane or Water Lane; there is no dedicated car park but plenty of residential parking, and the number 20 bus stops on Water Lane. Dogs can be off lead on the meadow paths with no livestock to worry about, though the reserve is managed for wildflowers and ground-nesting birds so keep to the mown paths in spring and early summer; the wartime hardstanding gives you firm footing when everything else in York is mud.

The opening leg of the River Foss Society's 28-mile Foss Walk, following the little river upstream from Castle Mills near the Ouse confluence through Huntington and New Earswick to Strensall — around six miles of quiet waterside field paths. Regular bridges let you shorten the walk to any length, and the towpath-style stretches are calm going for dogs; lead up through the villages and around anglers. Return to York by bus from Strensall or Haxby, or picnic and retrace.

A flat two-and-a-half mile circuit of the Ouse floodplain meadows on the east bank below the Millennium Bridge, out along the water and back by the field edge to Fordlands Road, and an easy hour and a quarter at dog pace with no stiles and nothing you could call a climb. Start from Fordlands Road or Broadway in Fulford and drop down to the river; the number 6 bus runs along Fulford Road every few minutes from the city centre. Cattle graze the ings through the summer and a cow with a calf is the single most dangerous thing a dog walker meets in this patch, so read the field before you unclip and give any herd a wide berth; the Ouse gives a strong swimmer a dip, but these are working washlands and the meadows can sit under water for weeks after winter rain.

Two flat miles of ancient common grassland between Acomb and the racecourse, an easy forty-five minutes on mown grass with a surfaced spine path that stays perfectly walkable in January when the ings are drowned. Walk in from Little Hob Moor off Tadcaster Road or from Green Lane in Acomb, both a short step from the frequent Tadcaster Road buses, and there is free street parking on the Acomb side. Dogs run off lead here every morning of the year, but cattle graze the moor through the summer months and calves are the real hazard, so keep a lead handy and walk round a herd rather than through it; there is no open water, so bring your own in a heatwave.

Just under two miles of open common between Huntington Road and Malton Road, dead flat, grass underfoot and comfortably walked in three quarters of an hour; the classic short evening loop for the Heworth and Stockton Lane dogs. Come in from Stockton Lane or Huntington Road with easy on-street parking, or take the number 10 or 20 bus to Heworth and walk up. It is a genuine off-lead space, but this is grazing land and cattle including cows with calves are out on it for much of the summer, so put the lead on when you see stock and give them room; the grass gets sodden after rain but there is nothing to wade and it recovers quickly.

A level three-mile circular from Tower Gardens along New Walk — the tree-lined riverside promenade laid out in the 1730s — over the Millennium Bridge and back past Rowntree Park on the far bank. Keep dogs on leads on the busy promenade and park stretches; the grassy banks by the bridge are good for a sniff about. Dog-friendly refuelling bookends the route: Dyls at Skeldergate Bridge and the Reading Cafe in Rowntree Park.

Twenty-four acres of reclaimed landfill turned local nature reserve a mile from the Minster, giving a mile and a half of easy looping paths through meadow, scrub and willow beside Osbaldwick Beck in about forty minutes. The environment centre is on Rawdon Avenue, YO10 3FW, and the small car park is reserved for visitors with limited mobility, so come on foot from Melrosegate or Hazel Court, by bike on cycle route 658, or on the 6 or 20 bus. St Nicks welcomes dogs provided they are on a lead or under close control and you clear up after them; the beck gives a drink but no swim, there is no livestock, and the surfaced main paths stay walkable through a wet January.

Two hundred acres of open common grassland wrapping around York Racecourse — the city's biggest space for a proper off-lead gallop, busy with local dogs every morning. Outside race and event days the whole stray is yours; on racedays cross to Hob Moor over the railway line instead. No livestock, but keep dogs clear of the gallops when racehorses are exercising early in the day.

Four and a third miles of entirely flat walking from York Station along the Ouse, over the Millennium Bridge and out on the old East Coast main line to Naburn, with Sustrans' scale model of the solar system counted off in tarmac as you go; allow a little over two hours and expect a hard surface the whole way. It is linear, so walk out and catch the 42 bus back from Naburn, or simply turn round at whichever planet has beaten the dog. Note honestly that the route passes beneath York's medieval bar walls but never on them, because dogs are not allowed on the wall-top walkways at all; on the path itself keep close control around cyclists, and be aware the shared surface means lead work through the city section, though the tarmac makes this the one York walk that is as good in January as in June.

Honesty first: dogs are not allowed on the wall-top walkways of York's medieval bar walls, assistance dogs excepted, so you cannot walk the ramparts themselves with a pet. Instead follow the two-mile street-level circuit beneath them — through the daffodil-banked ramparts and moat gardens between Bootham Bar and Monk Bar, past the Red Tower and round by Clifford's Tower — with the walls always overhead. All on lead, on pavements and park paths, and every bar gateway makes a natural photo stop.

A family-run hotel on a quiet Bootham terrace, five minutes from the Museum Gardens and the city walls. Three bedrooms are set aside for dogs, one dog to a room, and dogs are welcome in the bar as well. Book well ahead, as those rooms go quickly.

Boutique hotel in a 19th-century mansion at 89 The Mount, on the walking line between the racecourse and Micklegate Bar. It accepts dogs under the brand's dog-friendly scheme — check the nightly fee and which rooms when booking. Well placed for an evening loop of the Knavesmire before dinner in the bistro courtyard.

A National Trust-owned William III country house beside York Racecourse, where dogs stay free of charge in the Cottage Suites and Garden Suite by prior arrangement. The hall provides a bed, water bowl and snacks; dogs are not allowed in the main house, spa or formal gardens but may explore the park and lakeside. A grand base with the Knavesmire's open acres on the doorstep.

Georgian complex on Skeldergate a five-minute walk from the riverside and the city centre, with 56 rooms spread across several historic buildings and a quiet garden. The hotel welcomes you and your dog, with dog-friendly rooms bookable — confirm which room categories accept pets when reserving. Quietly placed for the New Walk and Millennium Bridge riverside loop.

Marriott's playful budget-boutique hotel on Black Horse Lane near the Stonebow, a level stroll from Fossgate's dog-friendly pubs and cafes. It accepts dogs — confirm the current fee and any size limits when booking. Modern, well-soundproofed rooms suit city-nervous dogs better than a creaky coaching inn.

Georgian townhouse hotel at 1 Clifton, minutes from the Museum Gardens, where dogs stay for 25 pounds per visit in every room except the smallest. Each dog gets a comfy Ivy & Duke bed, food and water bowls, treats on arrival and a card of recommended local walks; dogs go on leads in public areas and are not allowed in the spa. One of the most polished dog stays in the city.

A Georgian townhouse hotel on Lendal, two minutes' walk from the Minster, with a cellar bar underneath. Dogs are accepted in the Courtyard Rooms for an extra twenty pounds, so ask specifically for one of those when booking. Central enough that you can walk everywhere from the front door.

Forty-five to sixty-minute sightseeing cruises on the Ouse from the King's Staith and Lendal Bridge landings, plus a hop-on river bus and self-drive hire boats. Well-behaved dogs on a lead travel free on the daytime sightseeing cruises, river bus and self-drive boats; only assistance dogs are permitted on the dining and Santa cruises. The open deck is the best spot for a breezy snout past the Guildhall and under the city's bridges.

Ten acres of botanic gardens around the ruins of St Mary's Abbey, running down to the Ouse beside the Yorkshire Museum. Dogs are permitted throughout the gardens but must be kept on a lead at all times; the abbey ruins, observatory lawns and riverside edge are the highlights. The resident squirrels will test any recall, which is another argument for the lead rule.