Our drawing of the route, over road and path data from OpenStreetMap. It shows where the walk goes and what it goes through. It is not a survey and not a navigation aid — carry OS Explorer on the hill.
A short, flat suburban circuit round the old claypit boating pond off Blackwell Road and out through the grass of Upperby Park, which is what south Carlisle actually walks its dogs on before work. The perimeter path round the water is tarmac and pushchair-flat; the park end is mown grass with mature trees, and Cumberland Council has been planting 300 more of them under the Start with the Park scheme. The pond holds ducks and swans all year, so this is not a place to let a bird-minded dog swim. The new skate park and the fenced play area are both dog-free ground.
The all-day cafe and bar at the front of the Halston on Warwick Road, a couple of minutes from the station and the citadel. Dogs are allowed in here with their owners, which is useful because the Halston's other room, the Penny Blue restaurant, is stated to be for humans only. Leads are required anywhere in the hotel's public areas and grounds. If you are staying, dogs cannot be left in the apartment unaccompanied, so Bartons Yard is where the dog goes while you eat.
The city's standard dog circuit: out of the Bitts Park car park on Dacre Road behind the castle, east along the Eden past the bowling greens, over the Memorial suspension bridge into Rickerby Park, a loop of the park to the obelisk and back down the north bank to Eden Bridge. Rickerby Park is grazed, so there is stock on the grass most of the year and the field gates matter more than the map does. The return leg runs west through Bitts Park to the Sheepmount athletics ground, where the Hadrian's Wall Path carries on along the river. Cumberland Council's PSPO puts no lead requirement on either park, but it does exclude dogs from the fenced play area and skate park, which sit right on the line of the walk.
Since 25 November 2023 the cathedral has admitted dogs to the main building as well as the grounds, which makes it one of the few indoor wet-weather stops in the city you can take a dog into. A water bowl is kept opposite the main door. The rule is one dog per adult, on a short lead, and it does not extend to services, to the tours that go above ground level, or to the Treasury. Guide, therapy and assistance dogs were already admitted and are unaffected.
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