Dog-friendly Bawtry and around

A wet-led local on Bawtry High Street, the old Great North Road through the town, a short walk from the market place and from the tracks into Bawtry Forest on the Austerfield side. Its own Craft Union page says dogs are welcome with cosy corners, water bowls and plenty of friendly faces, and points out that a dog can sit with you for live sport or come out into the beer garden. Nothing on the page fences dogs off to one part of the building, so the bar itself is open to them. This is a sport-and-drinks pub rather than a dining room, so expect noise on a match day.

A traditional back-street pub at 12 Swan Street, a minute off Bawtry market place and away from the High Street restaurant trade, with a single-room bar, a separate pool area and several different seating corners. There is a large covered patio with picnic tables and a real fire inside, which between them cover both a wet dog and a cold one, plus a car park that makes it an easy stop after the tracks through Bawtry Forest on the Austerfield side. Two real ales are always on, Timothy Taylor Landlord plus a changing guest, and it holds a five-star Cask Marque rating. CAMRA's WhatPub survey of September 2024 lists the pub as dog friendly with no room excluded, which is the published evidence rather than the pub's own wording.

A family-run pub on Gainsborough Road at the southern edge of Bawtry, in the same hands since 2007 and trading on plain home-cooked food at sensible prices rather than on a menu that changes every season. The pub describes itself on its own site as a family and dog friendly traditional pub and serves food seven days a week, which in this part of the borough is worth knowing because most of Bawtry's High Street venues publish nothing about dogs at all. There is a beer garden behind for warm days and a takeaway service. It is the practical dog stop for Bawtry now that the woodland east of the town is behind a permit scheme.

A coaching inn on Bawtry High Street, on the old Great North Road, with a bar and restaurant on the ground floor and bedrooms above and behind. This is the useful but awkward combination: the hotel takes dogs in bedrooms but not anywhere else, so a dog can sleep here and walk from the door but cannot sit with you in the bar or the restaurant. Dogs go in designated bedrooms only at £15 per night on top of the room rate, and the hotel will only allow a dog to be left alone in a room if it is in its own cage, which you have to bring yourself. Bowls, blankets and bedtime treats are provided, and dogs have to be added to the booking by phone rather than online.

A stone pub on Sunderland Street in Tickhill that began as a farmhouse in the sixteenth century and still has three rooms, including a barrel-shaped snug with a real fire whose cask-made furniture is on CAMRA's national inventory of historic pub interiors. Up to four real ales, a garden, its own car park and a fire to dry a dog by make it the best stop in the village after a circuit of the Millpond and the castle earthworks five minutes away. It is a busy community local so it can be tight for space at peak times. CAMRA's WhatPub entry records it as dog friendly with no room named; that is the published evidence rather than the pub's own words.

A garden centre with a large cafe on Bawtry Road on the south side of Tickhill, and the most practical indoor stop with a dog anywhere in this corner of the borough. The company publishes the rule plainly: well behaved dogs are permitted in store and in designated areas of the cafes, and those areas have pet drinking stations. Dogs must be kept on a lead throughout the store and you are responsible for clearing up any accident. It opens 9am to 5.30pm Monday to Saturday and 10.30am to 4.30pm on Sunday, with a large free car park, which makes it a sensible meeting point before a walk round Tickhill.

A village pub on Westgate at the Doncaster end of Tickhill, reopened in 2023 by licensees who had spent years in the trade around Bawtry and had won CAMRA awards for it. Behind the pub is a large paved outdoor area with planted borders and hanging baskets, which is the easiest place to park a wet dog after a circuit of the Tickhill millpond and the castle mound five minutes up the road. Inside it is a straightforward drinking pub with two or three cask ales, a function room and a Wednesday quiz, closed on Mondays. The dog welcome is recorded on CAMRA's WhatPub entry, surveyed in January 2026, rather than published by the pub itself.

An estate pub on Nostell Place in Bessacarr, named after the eighteenth-century racehorse, and a straightforward local rather than a destination. Its own dog-friendly page states that dogs are welcome in the bar area and that water bowls and treats are always available, and it describes the aim as a safe space for dogs rather than merely tolerating them. The welcome is written for the bar, so a dog stays on that side and does not go through to eat. It is on the same road as Bloom Cafe, so this corner of Bessacarr works as a pair of stops on one outing.

A health-leaning coffee shop in the Highfield Icon Building on Balby Carr Bank, on the business park south of Doncaster town centre, open from seven in the morning on weekdays for breakfasts, bowls and jacket potatoes. Its own site says plainly that the coffee shop is dog friendly and points out that the surrounding area has good trails to explore with a dog, which is fair: the flat carr land and cycle paths start straight outside the door. It is a modern open room with hard floors and plenty of table space, so a wet dog after a morning out is not a problem. Parking is on site rather than on street.

An open-air outlet centre on White Rose Way beside Doncaster Lakeside, and the most usefully dog-friendly indoor destination in the borough because it publishes exactly which shops will take a dog. Every store carries a sticker on the door: a green sticker means dogs are very welcome inside, a blue sticker means assistance dogs only, and around thirty of the units are green, including Clarks, The Body Shop, Mountain Warehouse, Trespass, Pavers and Skechers. There is a dedicated shelter called the Mutt Hut near the outdoor play area where you can sit with a drink, open Monday to Saturday 9am to 6pm and Sunday 10am to 4.30pm, and water bowls are put out through the centre. The house rules are leads on at all times, supervise and clean up, be mindful of other shoppers and pets, and never leave a dog unattended.

The ruins of a Cistercian abbey in a narrow limestone valley below Maltby, with the transept walls still standing to full height and Maltby Beck running through the middle of the site past a set of small waterfalls. English Heritage lists it among its dog-friendly places and entry is free, which makes it an unusually good stop with a dog for an abbey of this rank. The grounds are grass and gravel and mostly level once you are down in the valley, and the walk in from the free car park is about 250 metres on a rough path. Capability Brown landscaped the valley in the 1770s, which is why the ruins sit in mown lawn rather than rubble.

A budget business hotel on First Point Business Park at Balby, three miles from the city centre with free on-site parking and no height barrier on the car park, which matters if you are travelling in a van. Its published pet policy is one of the most detailed of any hotel in the borough: £15 per dog per night, a maximum of two dogs, all pets welcome apart from dangerous dog breeds, no pet left alone in a room and no pets in the dining room, with any damage including carpets charged and a pet policy to sign at check-in. The hotel keeps dog bowls and some treats behind the desk and has a small patio at the back for a last thing at night. Its own page is honest about the surroundings: this is lead-type walking round the hotel, with the Lakeside circuit a few minutes away by car, and it points guests at the Maple Tree up the road for a pint with the dog because the hotel restaurant is out of bounds.