Our drawing of the route — the shape of the walk, not a navigation aid. Carry OS Explorer on the hill.
A Green Flag park of 1922 between Chequer Road and Roman Road, ten minutes on foot from Doncaster city centre and restored for its centenary with new paths, planting and seating. It is small, flat and entirely enclosed by roads and railings, which makes it one of the better city-centre options for a dog that cannot be trusted near traffic, though the gates are open rather than self-closing. Facilities are tennis courts, a multi-use games area, table tennis, a Teqball table and football pitches, so the open grass gets busy on summer evenings. There is no lake here, so the Doncaster PSPO imposes no standing lead requirement, but the fenced toddler and junior play area is a dog exclusion zone and the pitches go lead-on during organised events.
Twenty hectares of plantation in the parish of Cantley-with-Branton, laid out around two hundred years ago as private hunting woodland on a seven thousand acre estate and closed to the public for most of its life. The Forestry Commission took it on in 1953 for timber and still kept people out; the council bought it in 1994 and opened it for the first time. Timber production continues alongside conservation work, so expect forestry rides, stacked logs and the occasional closed compartment rather than a manicured park. It is council open space under the Doncaster PSPO with no lake and no livestock, so no standing lead requirement, and it is quiet enough that you will often have the whole wood to yourself.
The council's own three and a half mile trail from Cantley Park north through the edge of the housing and into Sandall Beat Wood, which links the two biggest green spaces on the east side of Doncaster in one go. Cantley Park itself has woodland, a pond, a pitch and putt course that costs nothing if you bring your own clubs, and a skate park; the trail leaves it and works north across Sandall Beat Road into the wood. Under the Doncaster PSPO the lead goes on for the footpath round the Cantley Park pond and dogs stay out of the fenced play areas, but the rest is open. There is parking at Cantley Park itself, which Sandall Beat's own small car park often lacks by mid-morning at a weekend.
Eighteenth-century landscaped parkland below a Grade I hall two miles north-west of Doncaster city centre, with a chain of ornamental lakes in the valley and long grass slopes above them. The council's own page for the park names walks with the dog as one of the things it is for, and the parkland is open every day of the year even when the museum is shut. Under Doncaster's dog control PSPO the lead comes on for the footpaths that run round the lakes, and dogs must stay out of the fenced children's play areas; the open grass between the hall and the lakes is off lead. Parking is card or contactless only after repeated thefts from the machines, from £1.20 for an hour up to £7.00 over four hours, and the barrier locks at 9pm.
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