St Marys Bay

An easy 1.6 miles round the flat limestone plateau of Berry Head, three quarters of an hour on surfaced level paths through two Napoleonic forts to Britain's highest and shortest lighthouse. The pay-and-display car park sits right on the headland and is the busiest in Brixham on a sunny day, though the paths are wide enough that it never feels crowded and a mobility scooter can be borrowed from the visitor centre. Dogs are welcome throughout the reserve and Shoalstone beach below stays open to them all year, but guillemots and kittiwakes nest on the quarry cliffs so keep to the fenced paths in spring, and Breakwater Beach at the far end of the walk is closed to dogs from 1 May to 30 September.

A 3.6-mile circuit of about two hours over high cliffs to the shingle at Man Sands and back by old green lanes, with 250 metres of climbing and steep pitches either side of the beach that can be very wet underfoot. Start from the free National Trust car park on Scabbacombe Lane, reached down single-track lanes off the Brixham to Kingswear road, with room for perhaps twenty cars and no facilities of any kind. This is one of the best dog days in Torbay because Scabbacombe Sands and Man Sands are open to dogs all year, both have fresh water running onto the beach, and the only care needed is stock in the Woodhuish fields and the unfenced cliff edge between the two coves.