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On Crosby Beach, a hundred cast-iron figures stand looking out to sea, and every dog that passes seems to give them a suspicious sniff. It’s a good symbol of Merseyside: a coastal, city-meets-sand county, where a walk can be sea air one day and a park in the city the next. Our coverage here is

Dovedale’s stepping stones, the Derwent valley reservoirs, the gritstone edges above the Hope Valley: Derbyshire has more Peak District than most counties could dream of. It’s a walker’s county, and a dog owner’s too, provided you know the rules of the land and keep one eye on the sheep. Derby is the only place here

Bradgate Park is the sort of place that makes you forget you’re a short drive from Leicester: deer roam the open parkland, and the rocky outcrops of Charnwood Forest rise behind them. Leicestershire is much more than its city, with plenty of countryside to match, and a good few long walks to wear out a

Port Meadow in Oxford has horses and cattle grazing on it all year round, and the Thames running alongside. It’s a lovely place for a dog walk, as long as yours understands that the large animals on the meadow have right of way. Beyond Oxford, the county runs out into the Cotswolds, the Chilterns and

Sherwood Forest and its famous Major Oak are the first things most people think of in Nottinghamshire, but the dog-walking is broader than Robin Hood country. Wollaton Park in Nottingham has deer, the Trent runs through the middle of the county, and there’s open farmland in between, so a Nottinghamshire dog can have a very

Sheffield is built on hills, and the Peak District starts almost at the city’s edge. That makes South Yorkshire unusual for a county with so much industrial history: you can be among woodland or on moorland edge within a short drive of the centre, which suits dogs who like a bit of variety. One quirk

Pendle Hill sits over the Lancashire landscape like a lid, and the Forest of Bowland rolls away to the north. It’s a county of fells, farmland and a long, flat coastline, and none of those suit a dog in quite the same way, so it pays to know what you’re heading into. Lancashire is reasonably

Wild boar live in the Forest of Dean, which is not something you expect to be thinking about on a dog walk in England. Gloucestershire stretches from that forest across the Severn to the Cotswold hills, so a walk can mean anything from woodland trails to wide sheep country, and your dog will have opinions

Box Hill has a set of stepping stones across the River Mole, and on a sunny weekend every Surrey spaniel seems to know exactly where they are. The county is more wooded and hilly than most people expect, with the Surrey Hills, heathland and commons all within reach of the commuter towns, so even a

Kent is the county that most of Europe-bound Britain drives through, so it’s easy to forget it’s also a place worth stopping. Chalk cliffs at the coast, orchards and hop country inland, and the North Downs rolling across the middle all make good dog-walking. The Garden of England is also the starting point for many