The Best Places to Walk a Dog in Liverpool and on Merseyside
Anyone who has spent long enough with a dog eventually works out that the Merseyside region is well-set for walking options. There are Victorian city parks, coastal paths, tidal islands, ancient dune systems, disused railway lines turned into linear parks and enough country parks that you can visit a different one every weekend for a couple of months without repeating yourself. The trick is knowing which places will happily let you turn a spaniel loose in a meadow and which will fine you eighty quid for the same thing at the wrong time of year.
What follows is a borough-by-borough breakdown of the best places to walk a dog across Merseyside, along with the local rules that apply. Every council in the region now has some form of Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) covering dog control and the specifics are different in each one. That means that the fines, the on-lead requirements, the seasonal beach exclusions and the maximum number of dogs one person is allowed to walk at a time vary depending on where on Merseyside you and your furry friend find yourselves.
Those rules are covered upfront because they apply everywhere, and then we look at the walks themselves. All rules and figures are taken from each council’s own website or from the National Trust for Formby and were correct in mid-2026. It is fair to say that the list is far from exhaustive. It is not easy to come up with any list of places you can walk a dog in the Merseyside region that wouldn’t stretch to hundreds of thousands of words, but this will hopefully give you a sense of where you can head to and what you’ll be able to do whilst you’re there.
A Quick Word on the Rules
Liverpool’s Public Spaces Protection Order around dogs was introduced in 2022. Dogs are banned outright from enclosed playgrounds and skateparks, enclosed picnic areas, all park lakes and ponds (paths around lakes are still fine), enclosed and open Multi-Use Games Areas and all sports pitches including bowling greens, tennis courts, football pitches and basketball courts. Walled gardens are also dog-free at Sefton Park Palm House, Wavertree Botanic, Greenbank Park, Calderstones Park, Croxteth Park, Reynolds Park, Sudley House, Woolton Woods and Camp Hill.
@merseysidepoliceofficial Act now to protect your #dog from the changes in the Government’s banned breed laws. We know that #Merseyside is full of dog lovers and understand that #XLBully ♬ original sound – Merseyside Police
Dogs must be on a lead in all cemeteries and crematoria, in St John’s Gardens in the city centre and Devonfield Gardens on Devonfield Road in L9. The fixed penalty for a breach is £80, rising to a possible £1,000 if it goes to court. Sefton’s current PSPO was approved by the full council on the 18th of April 2024 and is in force until the April of 2027. The order caps the number of dogs one person can walk at six, requires that a lead used under the order is no longer than two metres, and bans dogs from enclosed playgrounds, fenced sports pitches and multi-use game areas.
Dogs must be kept on a lead on all A and B roads, in cemeteries and in defined picnic and family areas within parks. Marked football and rugby pitches are dog-free from the first of September until the 31st of May inclusive each year and marked cricket pitches from the first of April until the 30th of September. There are seasonal beach exclusions at Ainsdale and Southport (see the Sefton section below). The fixed penalty is £75, reduced to £50 if paid within ten days. Wirral, Knowsley and St Helens each operate their own dog-control PSPOs, with the same broad shape.
That means that there are bans from enclosed playgrounds and sports facilities, requirements to pick up dog waste anywhere the public can access and lead requirements in specific named locations. The exact details vary and can shift when the orders are renewed, so it’s worth a quick check of the relevant council page for any specific site you plan to visit. A general rule of thumb is that you need to ensure that your dog is under control and that it isn’t fouling any areas that are likely to be used by the public for something like sports or picnics.
Liverpool
Liverpool’s park scene is one of the better legacies of Victorian civic pride and the city still has enough of them that a dog owner can move around without ever being far from a decent walk. The big-name Victorian parks are all dog-friendly on the open lawns and around the perimeter paths, with the walled gardens and formal lake features cordoned off under the 2022 PSPO. Croxteth is the outlier, in that it has a proper country park, big enough that a lively dog will be tired by the end of it.
Lydiate Circular
When it comes to walking around different parts of Liverpool, everyone will have their own favourite spots. The Lydiate Circular is one that people who who want to get out and about for a couple of hours will look to do; normally on a weekend.
It is just shy of nine kilometres in terms of the distance, taking in sections of the Trans-Pennine Trail as well as the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. Although it is long, it is mostly flat, which makes it the ideal route to take if you like to walk for a long time but don’t want the walk itself to be too physically taxing.
If the weather is wet then you might want to head somewhere else or, at the very least, make sure that you’ve got decent footwear on. Parking can be a little bit tricky, with local pubs often being for customers only and keeping an eye out for anyone looking to flout that.
If you’re in a car then make sure to park somewhere that you’re not going to get a ticket or annoy the locals. Closer to Southport than to Liverpool city centre, this is a route that is one for the more adventurous amongst you.
Sefton Park
The 235-acre Victorian showpiece in south Liverpool is the default south-side walk. Miles of paths circle the boating lake and cut across the open meadows, whilst the woodlands are extensive enough to give some shade in high summer and the Palm House grounds sit at the middle of it all as a natural coffee stop, provided you tie your dog up outside. The walled Palm House grounds themselves are dog-free under the PSPO, as are the lake and the fenced sports pitches, but everything else is genuinely open.
Cold winter morning in Liverpool’s Sefton Park 🥶
📸 Kevin Elias
— ScouseScene (@scousescene.bsky.social) 19:08 · Jan 12, 2025
The Yellow Submarine playground at the north end is a good landmark for kids, but is inside an enclosed play area where dogs are not allowed.
Calderstones Park
Calderstones Park is slightly smaller than Sefton Park but with more variety per acre, including ancient woodlands, a Japanese garden, manicured formal beds and open lawns. A typical circuit takes an hour or so at a walking pace. The walled garden is dog-free and the lake sits inside a fenced area, but the woodland trails behind the mansion are ideal for a dog that likes something to sniff at. So all dogs, basically.
Croxteth Country Park
The full country-park experience within Liverpool’s borders. About 202 hectares of parkland, woodland, ponds, streams, pasture and paths, with Croxteth Hall and its Home Farm in the middle of it all. It sits off Muirhead Avenue East (L11 1EH) and opens 7am to 7pm from the first of April until the 31st of October, then 7am to 5:30pm from the first of November until the 31st of March. It is big enough to plan a genuine two-hour loop around and rural enough in parts that a well-behaved dog with reliable recall can get some proper exercise off-lead through the open pastures.
The walled garden around Croxteth Hall is dog-free, and dogs should be on leads near the Home Farm animals, for obvious reasons.
Otterspool Promenade
Not a park in the traditional sense but a long, flat riverside walk along the Mersey from Aigburth heading north. Big skies, amazing views over the river towards the Wirral and a hard surface that suits both a buggy and a dog that prefers a straight sniff-and-plod or a wheelchair user. Popular with runners and cyclists, there is nothing wrong with an off-lead dog if recall is reliable, but there’s a lot of foot and pedal traffic, so it’s often easier to keep the lead on and let the dog enjoy the wind coming in off the estuary.
The Wirral
The Wirral is the borough that would win a Merseyside dog-walking prize if such a thing existed. The peninsula has a real national-park-quality mix of coastal path, heathland, disused railway linear park and open beach, with the local country park being up there with anything in the North West. Formby is generally treated as the flagship walk in the region, but that’s actually in Sefton, with the Wirral having more variety but less fame.
Wirral Country Park & the Wirral Way
Wirral Country Park was the first designated country park in Britain when it opened in 1973, and it sits at the west of the peninsula between Hooton and West Kirby. Its spine is the Wirral Way, a twelve-mile former railway line now used exclusively by walkers, cyclists and horse riders, which means a well-trained dog can be off-lead for a full afternoon without going near a road. The Thurstaston visitor centre has a café, shop, bird hide, picnic and BBQ areas, plus accessible and standard toilets.
The centre opens Monday to Sunday roughly 10am to 4:30pm. Multiple access points along the Way mean you can dip in and out at Neston, Thurstaston, Caldy or West Kirby, so a walk can be as short as half an hour or as long as three or four.
Thurstaston Beach
One of the quietest beaches on the peninsula and, on the right afternoon, one of the best places on Merseyside to let a dog roam. A pay-and-display car park at Wirral Country Park connects to steps down onto the beach itself and from there, it’s soft sand backed by red sandstone cliffs and views out to the Welsh hills on a clear day. Dogs are welcome off-lead. It is worth checking the tide before setting off, given that the beach is a very different animal at high water than at low.
Royden Park & Thurstaston Common
Royden Park sits inland from the coast and links directly onto Thurstaston Common, which is an exposed hill of heather and gorse with rough paths across the top and long views back across the peninsula. Together they give you meadow, mature woodland, which provides a proper shady canopy for hot days, and open heath in a single walk, with a café at the visitor centre for coffee at either end. It is a good spot for training recall thanks to the long stretches of open ground and no roads to worry about.
North Wirral Coastal Park
The full stretch of coast between Meols and New Brighton is a four-mile linear park, roughly 200 acres, running along the promenade with the beach on one side and grass and dunes on the other. The Leasowe Lighthouse car park is the obvious base and the Green Hut is a good takeaway café for a coffee at the end. Wide open, flat, easy underfoot and a solid choice on a windy day when a dog needs to burn off some energy.
Hilbre Island
For anyone confident with tides and prepared to time the walk carefully, the crossing to Hilbre from West Kirby to Hilbre Island is one of the more distinctive dog walks in the country. There are two miles of sand and rock across the estuary to a small tidal island with a colony of grey seals just offshore. The crossing is only safe from three hours after high tide and you must leave the island at least three hours before the next high tide, so allow 45 to 60 minutes each way. Dogs are allowed on the island but must be kept on a short lead throughout because of ground-nesting birds and roosting waders.
Sefton
Sefton’s coastline is what people from other regions turn up for. Twenty-plus miles of near-continuous dune, beach and coastal paths stretch from Waterloo up through Crosby, Formby, Ainsdale and out to Southport, with the National Trust reserve at Formby as its most famous section. Almost all of it is walkable with a dog, but the coast has more rules than the parks do because it is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, making it a habitat for red squirrels, natterjack toads, sand lizards and nesting seabirds. It is also the busiest stretch of beach in the North West between May and September.
Formby (National Trust)
Over a thousand acres of pinewoods, dunes and open beach. Dogs are welcome across the site, but the National Trust makes it very clear that this is a conservation reserve first and a dog park a distant second. That means that dogs must be kept under close control, on a short lead in the woodland, where red squirrels are a real risk, and away from the dune pools between March and August, when natterjack toads and great crested newts are breeding. Skylarks and meadow pipits nest at ground level in the dunes, with whitethroats and reed buntings nesting slightly higher, and in autumn and winter waders such as knot, oystercatcher and sanderling roost along the tideline.
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The pawprint rating on the National Trust’s own scale is a modest one out of five, meaning that dogs are welcome, but facilities for them are limited. The two small car parks at Victoria Road and Lifeboat Road fill up early on sunny days, whilst the Trust recommends people get the train.
Crosby Beach & Another Place
The three-kilometre stretch of beach at Crosby where Antony Gormley’s 100 cast-iron figures stand facing out to sea is dog-friendly all year round and the whole thing sits at the southern end of the 35-kilometre Sefton Coastal Path, which continues all the way to Southport. The walk works nicely as a there-and-back along the tideline or as a longer loop taking in the marine lake and Crosby Lakeside Adventure Centre behind the beach. Watch the tide, though, as the sculptures further out sit in genuinely soft sand and mud and Sefton Council warns against walking out to the furthest figures.
Ainsdale Beach & Dunes
Miles of firm sand, backed by one of the most important dune systems in the country. Dogs are welcome on most of the beach for most of the year, but Sefton Council enforces a summer dog-exclusion zone that extends 200 metres either side of the main beach entrance, down to the tide line. That zone is signposted when in force. Outside those markers, and outside the summer season, this is an excellent long walk as it is flat, easy underfoot and rarely as busy as Formby.
Southport Beach & Marine Lake
The other end of the coast has a similar summer restriction, in that dogs are excluded from the beach for 555 metres south of the Pier towards Pleasureland, down to the tide line, from May to September. North of the Pier and further south of the zone, dogs are fine. The Marine Lake and the walkways around it also make a good ninety-minute loop, particularly out of season when the crowds are gone.
Rimrose Valley Country Park
A 3.5-kilometre linear country park running between Crosby and Litherland, with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal on its eastern edge. Managed by Sefton’s Ranger Service, it has a network of tarmac and gravel paths and raised boardwalks through wet grassland and no roads to worry about. Popular with dog walkers, cyclists and commuters and a useful piece of green space in an otherwise built-up part of the borough.
Knowsley
Knowsley’s dog-walking scene doesn’t get the same coverage as the coast or the country parks further west, but the borough has a proper network of green spaces. In fact, there are enough that a resident dog owner can rotate through half a dozen without leaving the borough. The council also runs a regular walking programme through its Green Space Rangers, which sometimes takes in dog-friendly routes.
Stadt Moers Park
A 220-acre country park between Whiston and Huyton, with waymarked routes threading through open meadow, blocks of newer planting and boggy marsh and past a handful of ponds. There is a decent cycle path running alongside as well. It is well-used by local dog walkers, which means most of the dogs that yours will meet are the sociable regulars. A route that runs long enough for a solid one to two hours’ walking, depending on which loop you pick.
Stadt Moers Park.
Decent walk with pups 🐶🐶 pic.twitter.com/b7ljfQL8eW
— David Conway (@Daveconway123) December 28, 2019
Halewood Park Triangle
Compact and easy to plan a walk in, the Duck Pond loop is around 2.6 miles and takes just over an hour at an unhurried pace. Set on a former railway triangle in Halewood, hence the shape, the paths are gentle underfoot, which makes it a good choice for older dogs or a mid-week evening walk when you don’t want to commit to a full country-park hike.
Court Hey Park
A smaller borough park in Roby, on the site of an old country house that was demolished in 1956. The National Wildflower Centre used to sit in the grounds and there’s still a strong meadow-and-wildflower feel to much of the park. Suitable for a shorter walk of forty-five minutes or so and worth combining with a coffee stop at the café, if your dog is the type that can use such a space sociably.
St Helens
St Helens gets under-sold as a dog-walking destination, largely because most of its best spots are inland and don’t have the coastal marketing pull of the west of the region. That is a mistake. The borough has the largest inland body of water on Merseyside, part of one of the North West’s first canals and a significant slice of the wider Mersey Forest programme.
Carr Mill Dam
Just north of St Helens town centre, this is the biggest expanse of open freshwater anywhere in Merseyside, thanks to a reservoir with a two-mile lakeside path right the way round it and, roughly halfway, a large open meadow where locals routinely let their dogs off-lead. The full circuit takes 30 to 45 minutes at a decent pace, more if you stop to watch the anglers or take one of the side paths into the woodland.
@blistersandbanter Honestly one of the nicest walks I’ve been on so far! highly recommend!!! #Walking #hiking #adventure #fyp ♬ Paradise – 𝙇𝙭𝙪𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙯 🎧
Sankey Valley Country Park
A long green corridor along the line of what was, in 1757, the first canal built in England (depending on what counts as a canal), the Sankey Canal, running through St Helens and out towards Warrington. Water on one side, open grassland and woodland on the other, with plenty of access points and a genuinely peaceful atmosphere for somewhere so close to town. A good walk for a dog that likes water, though it’s obviously not the sort of canal you’d want them going for a swim in.
Sherdley Park
Around 300 acres of well-kept grassland, wildflower meadow, ponds, streams and open woodland in Sutton. Big enough for a proper loop rather than a there-and-back and one of the most-used public parks in the borough. Dogs are welcome across most of it, with the usual exclusions around enclosed play areas and sports pitches.
Bold Forest Park
Not a single park, but a landscape-scale community woodland scheme south of St Helens town centre, forming part of the wider Mersey Forest. Multiple sites, including Clock Face Country Park, Sutton Manor and Colliers Moss Common, are linked by paths through woodland, restored grassland, ponds and reedbeds. A car park at King George V, off Jubits Lane, is one common starting point. It is genuinely wild in parts, so if your dog is one that tends to disappear then you might want to keep them on a long lead here.
The Region’s Golden Rules
There are a handful of things worth remembering no matter which borough you happen to be in. You must pick up after your dog, everywhere, given that every council in the region will fine you if it catches you failing to do so and, of course, it’s also just nicer for everyone else. Keep your dog in sight and under recall and, if a park has a fenced play area, a sports pitch, an enclosed picnic area, a walled garden or a marked football or rugby pitch in season, assume it’s not somewhere your dog can go.
On the coast, be aware of the seasonal exclusions at Ainsdale and Southport, as well as the National Trust’s rules at Formby, particularly around the red squirrels and the dune pools in spring and summer. You should also be aware that Hilbre Island cannot be crossed safely at just any time of day, so check the tide before setting off. On the Wirral Way, in the country parks and along the Sefton Coastal Path, the terrain is generally kinder, but livestock is present in various places, so a lead in the pocket is a sensible thing to have even if you don’t plan to use it.
If a specific site’s current rules matter to you, for example whether a particular park has just had its picnic area redesignated as a lead-only area, the individual council PSPO pages are the reference. Signage at each park entrance is also required to reflect the current position, so the physical sign on the day wins if you’re unsure.
