Our drawing of the route — the shape of the walk, not a navigation aid. Carry OS Explorer on the hill.
The towpath east from Thorne Lock along the Stainforth and Keadby Canal, dead level, wide and firm, with moored boats at the town end and open drained farmland once you are clear of the houses. This is Canal and River Trust water and the Trust's guidance is that dogs should be kept under close control and, on busy stretches, ideally on a short lead, with everything picked up and binned; there is no blanket ban and no seasonal closure. The practical hazards are the canal edge itself, which is unfenced and vertical, and shared use with cyclists on a narrow path. Thorne North and Thorne South stations are both within a few minutes' walk of the lock, so this is one of the few walks in the patch you can do without a car.
Thorne's own recreation ground off Field Side, rebuilt by the town council and reopened in 2023, with fishing lakes, a woodland play trail, surfaced accessible paths, picnic benches and the Lake View Cafe looking out over the water. It is the best walk inside Thorne itself: flat, well surfaced and long enough to be worth driving to, with on-site parking, which the canal towpath and the moors both lack. The lakes are the catch under the borough PSPO, which requires a lead on all footpaths around lakes and ponds, so most of the circuit here is lead-on. Anglers fish the lakes from pegs on the bank, so a dog that goes into water is a problem here rather than a novelty.
A large roadside pub on Selby Road on the north edge of Thorne, open from 7am on weekdays and 8am at weekends for breakfast and serving through until 9pm. Its own dog-friendly page states that dogs are welcomed in the bar area and that water bowls and treats are available, and it describes itself as a safe space for dogs. The bar is the dog side; the dining room is not named in that welcome, so a dog stays on the bar side of the building. There is a beer garden behind, and the pub is a practical stop after Thorne Moors or the canal towpath because it is on the way in from Moorends.
A short town walk from Thorne Memorial Park down through the streets to the canal basin at Lock Hill and back along South Parade, taking in the moorings, the lock and the old wharf buildings. The park itself is level open grass with a play area and monuments; the cafe in it is currently closed with no reopening date published by the town council. Everything on the route is public open space or highway in the borough, so the Doncaster PSPO governs it: a lead on the footpaths around any pond, no dogs in the fenced play area, and pick up throughout. It is a sensible bad-weather alternative to Thorne Moors, which has no shelter at all.
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