Appleby, the Eden and the Woodland Walk

Four and a half miles and about an hour and fifty minutes on level ground, from St Lawrence's church at the foot of Boroughgate along the Eden and out through the town's Woodland Walk to the loop above the river. It starts in the middle of Appleby-in-Westmorland, where the Chapel Street and Sands car parks are free for a couple of hours and the Settle-Carlisle line stops in the town. The riverside is the best of it for a dog - broad grassy banks, gravel shallows for a drink, and the woodland stretch enclosed for off-lead running. The riverside meadows are grazed and can hold cattle from May, the Eden runs fast and deep after rain, and the horse fair week in June changes the whole character of the town.