Thorne Moors

The northern half of the Humberhead Peatlands National Nature Reserve, a raised lowland bog east of Moorends that was cut for peat until 2004 and is now being re-wetted by Natural England. The walking is on the old peat tramway lines and dead-straight drain banks, flat and firm underfoot but completely exposed, with no shade, no water and no shelter anywhere on it. Doncaster Council confirms Thorne Moors as one of only four pieces of registered open access land in the borough, and that is what sets the dog rule: on open access land dogs must be on a lead no more than two metres long between 1 March and 31 July for the ground-nesting birds, and at all times where there is livestock. There is a good adder population on the moors and they are out from early spring, which is a real reason to keep a dog on the path rather than in the heather.