Route diagram, drawn from the recorded track — for the shape of the walk, not for navigation. Carry OS Explorer on the hill.
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.
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.
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