Holkham Beach
Four miles of sand, dune and pinewood inside Holkham National Nature Reserve, reached by the boardwalk through the Meals from Lady Anne's Drive. Dogs are welcome the year round and most of the bay is open to off-lead walking under close control, which is why this is the beach dog owners drive across three counties for. Pay-and-display parking on Lady Anne's Drive, from £3.80 for two hours.
Holkham Gap, the pines and the beach circular
Four and a half miles and a little over two hours, all of it flat, on boardwalk, open sand and the sheltered track behind the Corsican pines that Holkham planted to hold the dunes together. It starts on Lady Anne's Drive off the A149, a pay-and-display strip of several hundred spaces that costs £3.80 for two hours and £14 all day and is full by late morning on summer weekends. Dogs are welcome all year and more than seventy per cent of the beach stays open to off-lead walking under close control, but from 1 April to 31 August leads are required in the marked breeding zones at Holkham Gap and Gun Hill, the roped cordons around nesting terns, oystercatchers and ringed plovers must not be entered, and the grazing marsh either side of Lady Anne's Drive usually holds cattle.
The Victoria Inn
The Holkham Estate's inn at the top of Lady Anne's Drive, five minutes from the best dog beach in England. Dogs are welcome throughout the main building, including the restaurant, and ten of the twenty bedrooms take them; there is a dog menu, bowls and treats. Dogs cannot stay in the separate Ancient House rooms.