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 miles and a little under two hours through a hundred and twenty acres of ancient woodland tumbling down a gorge above the River Ure, past the eighteenth-century follies, grotto and ruined banqueting house of a lost pleasure ground; the paths are steep, stepped and treacherous with wet leaves from October. Park in the small Woodland Trust car park at Hackfall on the Grewelthorpe to Masham road, three miles from Masham, and note that it holds perhaps a dozen cars. This is Woodland Trust land with no stock in it, so a dog can be off the lead for the whole circuit - a genuine rarity in this part of Yorkshire - and there is a shingle beach on the Ure at the bottom where dogs swim; the cautions are the drops, because several of the follies stand at the top of unfenced crags above the gorge and the riverside path has undercut banks where the Ure runs deep and fast.
Paul Theakston's famous independent brewery on the edge of Masham, with daily tours, the Sheepy Shop and a popular bar and kitchen. Dogs are welcome in the bar and bistro seating areas, and the venue is a regular haunt for walkers doing the Masham riverside circuit; production tours themselves are not suitable for dogs. Expect the full range of Black Sheep ales at the source.
Seven and a half miles and around four hours, taking a section of the Ripon Rowel out to Fearby, on by lane to Healey, then down to the wooded River Burn and back along the Ure into Masham; it is easy underfoot apart from the clay fields, which stay sticky into early summer. Start in Masham market place, one of the largest greens in Yorkshire, with free parking and the 159 bus from Ripon and Leyburn. The Burn and the Ure both give good drinking and there are shallow gravel bars on the Ure where a dog can swim safely, but sheep and cattle are in the fields between Masham and Fearby so the lead stays on and there is about a mile and a half of quiet lane with no pavement; the stiles are mostly wooden steps rather than the stone squeezes of the upper dales, so a big dog gets round this one comfortably.
Four and a quarter miles in a shade over two hours on the flat, east from the market place to the Ure, then west along the River Burn past Swinton Park and back on the Ripon Rowel; riverside and field paths that get muddy but never steep. Start on Masham's huge market square, where parking is free and both breweries and their tap rooms are a few yards away; the 159 bus runs from Ripon. A sound low-level choice for a hot day or an old dog with two rivers for swimming and plenty of shade, but the meadows are grazed by sheep and cattle, there are stiles on the Burn section, and Swinton Park's parkland holds free-roaming fallow deer that will draw any dog.
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