Somerset’s pub coverage via CAMRA’s own “Dog Friendly” tag is solid across most of the county’s towns, though we also caught a surprising number of confirmed closures worth knowing before you plan a trip — and cafés and restaurants, as usual, are much thinner.
Verified pubs (CAMRA “Dog Friendly” tag), by town
Taunton: Black Horse Inn, Flying Horse, Star Inn (Middle Street). Bridgwater: The Duke, plus the Thatchers Arms just outside at Moorland. Yeovil: Royal Standard. Wells: Globe Inn. Glastonbury: King William Inn, Market Place. Street: Wessex Hotel, High Street. Frome: Old Bath Arms, plus Grain Cafe Bar which doubles as a dog-friendly café. Minehead area: Britannia Inn, Alcombe. Dulverton: Bridge Inn, and Woods (closed Sundays and Mondays).
Cafés and restaurants: thin, one standout
Grain Cafe Bar, Frome, is the one genuinely first-party-confirmed café find, tagged dog-friendly via CAMRA and linked to the Cheese & Grain venue. Beyond that, coverage is thin: a couple of other names turn up on generic aggregator “best dog-friendly restaurants” listings, but without an individual venue’s own confirmation we’re not naming them as verified. We found no confirmed dog-friendly café or restaurant in most other towns this round — a genuine gap rather than an oversight.
Closures caught and excluded
Several dog-friendly-tagged pubs turned out to be closed on checking CAMRA’s own records, and we’ve left them out rather than risk sending you to a shut door: the Racehorse Inn, Taunton (closed long term, despite a contradictory “reopened” note); the Pall Tavern, Yeovil; the Britannia Inn, Wells (closed since 2020, approved for residential redevelopment); Three Wells near Polsham, on the Glastonbury–Wells road; the Thatched Cottage and the Wine Vaults, both Shepton Mallet; the Old Pier Tavern, Burnham-on-Sea (temporarily closed for refurbishment); the Old Inn, Wincanton; and the Two Swans, Castle Cary — permanently closed since 2006, though it still surfaces in general searches.
Thin coverage worth a closer look
We found no confirmed, currently-open dog-friendly pub in Bruton, Shepton Mallet or Castle Cary this round. These are real market towns with several pubs each, so this likely reflects under-tagging on CAMRA’s database rather than a genuine absence — worth treating as an open gap pending a closer, pub-by-pub look rather than a confident zero.
A busy market-town pub on a weekend, full of new smells and other dogs, takes some settling into for a nervier dog. A calming bite before you set off can help take the edge off. If the anxiety runs deeper than a new environment, that’s a conversation for your vet.
For everything else dog-related in Somerset, see our Somerset dog services hub — and if you need help on the days you can’t walk them yourself, here’s our guide to dog walkers in the county.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which pubs in Somerset are confirmed dog-friendly?
CAMRA’s “Dog Friendly” tag confirms pubs across Taunton, Bridgwater, Yeovil, Wells, Glastonbury, Street, Frome, Minehead and Dulverton — see our town-by-town list above.
Is there a dog-friendly café in Somerset?
Grain Cafe Bar in Frome is the strongest confirmed find. Coverage elsewhere is genuinely thin.
Is the Two Swans in Castle Cary still open?
No — it’s been permanently closed since 2006, though it still turns up in general searches.
Written by Georgiana & Figo, who has strong opinions about which beer gardens have the best market-day people-watching.
