A dog-friendly weekend in and around Hawes
Hawes is one of those places that does the work without making a fuss about it. Sit at the top of Wensleydale, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and you have a compact market town, a brace of waterfalls, a handful of good pubs and a landscape that stretches in every useful direction. It is not trying to impress anyone, which is probably why it does.
This is a loose framework for a weekend, not a schedule. Pick what suits, leave the rest, and let the gaps fill themselves.
Hawes: a brief introduction
Hawes sits at the head of Wensleydale, high in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and holds the modest distinction of being one of the highest market towns in England. The Pennine Way passes through, which means there is always someone in walking boots looking purposeful, and the town has that useful combination of enough independent shops to fill an hour and enough open countryside immediately beyond to fill a day.
The Wensleydale Creamery has been making cheese here since the 1890s, the Tuesday market draws in the valley, and the whole place has a lived-in quality that larger Dales honeypots sometimes lose. It is small enough to walk end to end without realising you have, and useful enough as a base that you will not have to drive far to find the next thing. The TDFM Hawes directory covers the full range of dog-friendly options if you want to build your own version of the weekend.
Friday: arriving and settling in
Hawes is easy to orientate yourself in — one main street, a market square, hills visible from almost everywhere. Friday is for arriving rather than achieving, and the town suits that approach.
The White Hart Inn is right in the centre and a practical first port of call. Dogs are welcome inside the bar and part of the restaurant, there are water bowls and treats in the bar, and the kitchen runs lunchtimes and evenings Monday to Saturday. It is the kind of town-centre pub that gives you a clear sense of where you are without any effort on your part.
Saturday: Hardraw Force
England's highest unbroken single-drop waterfall is in the tiny village of Hardraw, and it earns its reputation. Hardraw Force drops through a limestone amphitheatre in the woodland above the village, with access beside The Green Dragon Inn via a separate entrance beyond the car park.
Well-behaved dogs are welcome throughout the waterfall and woodland grounds. The path through to the falls is part of the experience — the sound arrives before the view does, and the natural bowl around the drop makes the whole thing unexpectedly theatrical.
The Green Dragon Inn welcomes dogs inside in the bar and serves food, making it a natural place to pause before or after the falls. In summer the site opens daily from 10:00 to 18:00; winter hours vary, so it is worth checking before setting out in the off-season.
Sunday: Aysgarth Falls
Where Hardraw Force is concentrated — one dramatic drop into a contained bowl — Aysgarth Falls spreads itself across a wider landscape. The Aysgarth Falls National Park Visitor Centre is the gateway to a series of stepped cascades on the River Ure, where paths lead down through woodland to the water. Dogs are welcome in the outdoor areas, including the falls themselves and the woodland paths. The Visitor Centre opens daily from 10:00 to 17:00 and parking is at the National Park car park on site.
Aysgarth Falls Cafe sits beside the site and welcomes dogs inside. Breakfast and lunch are served Friday to Sunday from 9:00 to 15:00, with a shorter morning slot on Thursdays. It is a straightforward and useful stop — the menu includes dog dinner bowls and treats, which your dog will consider the most important detail of the entire weekend. Check the day of your visit falls within the opening days before you plan around it.
Eating and drinking in and around Hawes
The town centre gives you a workable cluster for food and drink without much navigation required. The White Hart Inn covers lunch and dinner Monday to Saturday and runs all day on Sunday — dogs are welcome inside the bar and part of the restaurant. The Board Inn is another central option with dogs welcome in the bar area and lunch confirmed. For something lighter, Wensleydale Ice Cream Parlour and Coffee Shop is open daily from 11:30 to 16:30 with dogs welcome inside — ice cream, waffles and light lunches in a parlour that is harder to walk past than it should be. Laburnum House Tea Room is a quieter option for tea and cake, with dogs welcome inside — it is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so check before visiting.
Out of town, the options are worth knowing about. The Crown Inn in Askrigg is a family-run village pub roughly five miles from Hawes, with dogs welcome inside by the fire, home-cooked food at lunch (12:00–14:00) and evenings (18:00–20:30), and the mild distinction that Askrigg was used as Darrowby in the original BBC television series of All Creatures Great and Small. The pub is closed on Wednesdays. The Three Horseshoes on the A684 toward Leyburn has dogs welcome in the bar and dining room, lunch from midday to 14:30 and evenings from 17:45, and a large customer car park.
Stone House Hotel sits above Hawes with a public bar and lounge open to non-residents. Dogs are welcome inside and food is served throughout the day. Simonstone Hall Hotel, just outside Hawes in the hamlet of Simonstone, has a bar open to non-residents with dogs welcome inside, afternoon tea from 13:00 to 15:30 daily and evening dining from 18:00. Both are confirmed on the TDFM Hawes pubs and bars page alongside the rest of the town's options.
Browsing in town
The compact centre rewards a wander, and two stops stand out for dog owners. Caffè Curva on Market Place combines a browsable retail side with a café, and dogs are welcome inside throughout. Expect water and treats to be offered to visiting dogs, which is the sort of thing you notice when you have spent a day in places that technically allow your dog but make them feel like a mild inconvenience.
Chapel Gallery on Burtersett Road is a mix of original art, ceramics and handmade pieces alongside a relaxed café space, with dogs welcome inside. Opening hours are not listed online, so it is worth checking ahead. The two sit close enough together in the town centre to combine naturally into one wander rather than two separate decisions. The Hawes shops directory has everything else in town.
Further afield: three very different days out
If you want to extend the trip or return with a fuller agenda, the wider area offers three genuinely different types of day out.
Wensleydale Railway runs heritage trains through the Dales from Leyburn Station, currently the western end of the passenger service. Well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome on all standard scheduled trains for £1 and can settle at your feet while the valley rolls past. They are not permitted on dining or special-event trains such as afternoon tea services, so check the timetable before booking if the day involves any celebration.
Middleham Castle is an English Heritage ruin near Leyburn with a genuine claim on your attention: it was one of Richard III's favourite residences and he spent much of his early life there. Dogs on leads are welcome throughout the grounds. Check seasonal opening times before visiting, as English Heritage operates varied hours across the year. Limited free on-street parking is available nearby.
Richmond Castle is further afield — Richmond is a separate town from Hawes and the Wensleydale valley, so treat this as a day in its own right rather than a local stop. One of England's best-preserved early Norman castles, it is dominated by its huge 12th-century keep. Dogs on leads are welcome to the castle. Parking in the marketplace is charged and not managed by English Heritage. For the full range of things to do in the area, the TDFM Things to Do page for Hawes is the clearest starting point.
Hawes is one of the more genuinely navigable places in the Dales with a dog. The town itself is manageable, the surrounding landscape delivers without requiring careful advance planning, and the food and drink options mean you are not engineering every hour around who will sit outside and who will hold the lead. The TDFM Hawes page has the full directory if you want to shape the weekend differently.
Enjoy!!
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Price correct as of 20 July 2026.
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