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.
Nine miles round the town on the council's waymarked circuit, four hours, dead flat throughout on towpath, field track and riverbank with a handful of gates and no climb apart from the little rise over Brayton Barff. Start from Selby Abbey in the town centre and pick up the canal towpath west; Selby station is five minutes from the abbey with trains from York, Leeds and Hull, which makes this an unusually easy long walk to reach without a car. The towpath and the Barff woodland are safe for a dog off lead, but the farmland link between them carries sheep and occasional cattle and there is a stretch beside the A19 where a lead is not optional; the canal gives a dog a drink throughout and the towpath stays walkable all winter, while the field sections turn to heavy clay.
Selby's branch of the Lounges, all mismatched armchairs and all-day food, a minute from the Abbey at Market Cross. Dogs are welcome inside and there are treats for four-legged visitors at the counter. Open from breakfast through to the evening, which makes it a dependable default.
A mile and a half round a ninety-acre patchwork of lakes, meadow and birch woodland on a reclaimed tip east of the town, forty-five minutes, entirely flat with hard-surfaced main paths, a couple of boardwalks and softer side loops that get muddy. The car park off Common Lane in Barlow is free and open dawn to dusk, and Selby station is two and a half miles away with a bus to Barlow village. Dogs can be off lead on the main circuit and there is no livestock, but the reserve is a serious wildlife site with grass snakes, ground-nesting birds and open water, so keep out of the reed fringes and away from the lake edges in spring; the surfaced spine path is one of the few places in the Selby district that stays clean through a wet January.
The largest wood in the old Selby district — 340 hectares of mixed forestry between Cawood and Sherburn in Elmet — with flat, wide rides and easy circular routes of four to seven kilometres. It is loved by local dog walkers and dogs run off lead on the main rides; spring carpets the floor in bluebells and wild garlic. Free roadside parking off the lane through the wood; some side paths get muddy and overgrown.
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