Dogs at Dartmoor Zoo: No — But Dartmoor Is Free

Short answer: No. Dartmoor Zoo does not allow dogs, as is standard for a licensed zoo. The upside is location: you are fifteen minutes from Plymouth and on the edge of Dartmoor, where the walking is free and dogs are welcome throughout.

The short answer

No. Dartmoor Zoo is a licensed zoo with big cats and endangered species, and dogs are not admitted. That is standard across the sector — animal welfare and licensing conditions leave very little room for discretion.

Assistance dogs are a separate question and worth ringing about directly, as the arrangements vary by species and enclosure layout.

Worth knowing about the zoo itself

It is the charity-run zoo the film was based on, about fifteen minutes out of Plymouth. An annual pass currently costs roughly the same as a single visit, which is the best value in this guide if you are likely to return. They will let you drive up the hill if walking is difficult.

Where the dog goes instead

This is the easy bit — you are on the edge of Dartmoor, where 368 square miles of open access land is free to walk and dogs are welcome throughout.

• Bellever Forest — forestry tracks, a shallow river, wild ponies, toilets and a coffee trailer. £5 all day.
• East Dartmoor National Nature Reserve at Yarner Wood — four car parks, woodland loops, a riverside hide.
• Buckland Abbey, twenty minutes — National Trust, dog friendly in the grounds.
• Saltram, on the edge of Plymouth — acres of parkland, dogs off-lead in places.

A moorland note

Dartmoor is a working landscape. Keep dogs on leads around livestock and ground-nesting birds, and be aware the weather changes fast up there whatever it is doing at sea level.

Dog policies change, and the consequence of getting it wrong is being turned away at the gate. This was checked in September 2026 — ring ahead if you are driving any distance.