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.
Three and a half miles and around two hours, flat along the river then a steep 130-metre pull up the grass cone of Thorpe Cloud for the view down the dale. The National Trust car park at Dovedale is the start, £4.50 for four hours and £6 all day, free to members, open 9am to 7.30pm and full by half past nine every summer weekend. Dogs can cross the stepping stones but the tops are worn smooth, uneven and slippery when wet, and most dogs are happier wading the ankle-deep shallows beside them; leads are required all year here because of grazing stock and the Dovedale National Nature Reserve, and there are water bowls and dog bins in the car park.
The most photographed limestone dale in England, with the stepping stones a few minutes upstream of the pay-and-display car park at Thorpe. The stones are flat-topped but spaced and go slick after rain, so most dogs are happier wading the shallow Dove alongside them, and you can stay on the Thorpe bank and not cross at all. The National Trust asks for short leads throughout, as there are sheep, lambs and cattle in the fields; from Ilam there is an alternative route that avoids the cows and the stiles and takes ten minutes longer.
Five miles there and back through the whole of Dovedale, about three hours, past Lover's Leap, the Twelve Apostles and Dove Holes to the packhorse bridge at Milldale. It starts from the National Trust Dovedale car park, £4.50 for four hours and £6 all day and free to members, and the boardwalk sections mean the going is easy apart from the stone steps at Lover's Leap. Leads are required all year through the National Nature Reserve and where stock graze, the river is shallow and constant so drinking and paddling are never a problem, and the narrow ledges above Dove Holes have a real drop on the river side.
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