Route diagram, drawn from the recorded track — for the shape of the walk, not for navigation. Carry OS Explorer on the hill.
Twenty-four acres of reclaimed landfill turned local nature reserve a mile from the Minster, giving a mile and a half of easy looping paths through meadow, scrub and willow beside Osbaldwick Beck in about forty minutes. The environment centre is on Rawdon Avenue, YO10 3FW, and the small car park is reserved for visitors with limited mobility, so come on foot from Melrosegate or Hazel Court, by bike on cycle route 658, or on the 6 or 20 bus. St Nicks welcomes dogs provided they are on a lead or under close control and you clear up after them; the beck gives a drink but no swim, there is no livestock, and the surfaced main paths stay walkable through a wet January.
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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