Dog Friendly Bovey Tracey: Where to Eat and Walk

Short answer: Bovey Tracey is the gateway to the eastern moor and the woodland below it is the sheltered option. Yarner Wood has four car parks, Parke sits on the edge of town, and Ullacombe Farm, Home Farm Café, 3 Sixty and the Cromwell Arms all take dogs.

Woodland, not open moor

This is what makes Bovey Tracey useful with a dog. The high moor is exposed and serious; the ancient woodland below it is sheltered, shaded in summer and far kinder underfoot in winter.

Where to walk

The woods

• East Dartmoor National Nature Reserve at Yarner Wood — ancient woodland, grassy glades, a river with a hide, and four car parks.
• Parke, the National Trust estate on the edge of town, with Home Farm Café in it.
• Becky Falls — three waymarked trails down to a waterfall.
• Canonteign Falls — England's highest man-made waterfall, with a fern garden and lakes.

Up on the moor

Haytor and the open moor are a short drive up the road, and Bellever Forest is further out with forestry tracks, a shallow river and wild ponies. Wistman's Wood is remarkable but it is a proper moorland walk with no shelter.

Where to eat with a dog

• Ullacombe Farm Cafe on the Haytor road — indoor and outdoor seating, and goats and alpacas to feed for £1 a bag.
• Home Farm Café at Parke — a genuinely good menu with several vegetarian options.
• 3 Sixty in the town centre — a big quirky café with sofas and fast service even when busy.
• The Cromwell Arms on Fore Street — the town pub, with a good beer garden.

Before you drive up

Moor roads are unfenced and ponies and sheep stand on them. Several Dartmoor attractions cut their hours sharply in January and February — ring rather than assume.