Our drawing of the route — the shape of the walk, not a navigation aid. Carry OS Explorer on the hill.
A chain of north-facing limestone slopes above Denaby and Conisbrough forming one wall of the funnel that leads into the Don Gorge, called the Crags for at least a hundred years and Northcliffe Hills on the 1841 Ordnance Survey. The paths run along the tops of the outcrops and the view on a clear day takes in the Derbyshire hills, Emley Moor mast, Barnsley town hall and the Sheffield and Rotherham skylines. On the Conisbrough side is Northcliffe Quarry, which fed the lime kilns by a tramway incline still visible in the ground, and is now a local nature reserve and SSSI. It is council land under the Doncaster PSPO so there is no standing lead requirement, but there are unfenced quarry faces and steep drops, which is the real reason to keep a dog close here.
The white circular keep above Conisbrough is the finest twelfth-century tower of its kind in England and stands on a steep motte over the Don valley, run by English Heritage. English Heritage states plainly that dogs on leads are welcome in the grounds only, so a dog can come round the bailey and the earthworks but cannot go up inside the keep or the visitor centre; assistance dogs are welcome across the whole site. The grounds are grass and steep in places and there is no shade on the motte on a hot afternoon. There is no visitor car park of its own: English Heritage recommends Calvert Way opposite the private car park at the bottom of Castle Hill, with street parking in the village and a few accessible bays by the visitor centre.
A community local on West Street in Conisbrough, a few minutes below the castle and within walking distance of the Trans Pennine Trail crossing of the Don. It is a Craft Union house and the operator's own page for the pub lists it as a dog friendly pub alongside the pool table, the dartboard, the function room and the sports screens. What that page does not do is say which rooms a dog may use or whether bowls are put down, so treat it as dogs allowed rather than dogs catered for. There is outdoor seating at the front, and the pub shows football and rugby on several screens so it is loud on match days.
The best stretch of the Trans Pennine Trail in the borough, from Conisbrough up onto the twenty-one-arch viaduct high over the Don and then north-east along the river through the Don Gorge to Sprotbrough Lock. The viaduct deck is wide, fenced and surfaced, the towpath beyond it is level all the way, and the whole line is a former railway and canal towpath so there is not a stile on it. The Trail's own walker user code asks that dogs are kept under close control and in sight, and says a short lead is better on busy stretches and near farm animals and horses, which matters here because the trail is shared with cyclists and horse riders and the Sprotbrough Flash reserve alongside it is grazed by sheep and is lead-only. The Boat Inn sits at the Sprotbrough end and takes dogs, which makes this a natural one-way walk with a bus or a second car back.
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