The Big Diabetes Week Dog Walk

The big diabetes week dog walk this June (13-19), invite your friends, family, neighbours and pets and join us for the first ever Big Diabetes Week Dog Walk!

Everyone can get involved, whether your human or canine but dogs are obviously welcome. You might decide to go for a solo stroll, a family-friendly weekend wander, organise a walk around a local park, or go for a more ambitious trek with friends.

With this in mind we have put together some of the best places to take your beloved K9 friend and support Diabetic week.

3 Great place to walk your K9 friend

1. Blaise Castle Estate

Blaise Castle Estate is extremely popular with families, thanks to facilities such as refreshments, museum, buggy-friendly paths, epic children's play area and toilets. The first things you see when you leave the Kings Weston (free) car park are a huge grassy play area and hillock hiding a folly castle. Pathways lead past the impressive stately home and museum, through a wooded gorge that is ideal for stick hunting to a babbling brook – perfect for dogs and welly-wearers to splash in. If dog walking with a bit of mythical history thrown in is your thing, the fabled story of the Bristol Giants, Goram and Ghyston, tells how Bristol’s landscape was shaped. The myth alludes to landmarks which exist today, visit them for yourself – Goram’s Chair, Gorge and ‘tantrum’ footprint all lie in the grounds of Blaise Castle Estate.

Address: Kings Weston Rd, Bristol BS10 7QS

Conham River Park is a short walk but there’s plenty of extras to make this a lovely day out - lots of different paths, picnic benches and even bat caves. Part of the River Avon Trail (which starts in Pill and goes all the way to Pulteney Bridge in Bath), you can walk for as long or little as your like along the river – onto Trooper’s Hill or the lovely Hanham Lock is about an hour’s walk away. Not far from Conham River car park, you can catch a ferry across to Beese’s Tea Gardens (open seasonally, so check before you visit). They do a mean Sunday Roast and have a beer garden which is perfectly lovely in summer.

Alternatively catch a boat to Beese’s from either Brunel’s SS Great Britain, Watershed or Welsh Back – Bristol Ferry Boats welcome well-behaved dogs on a lead and Bristol Packet Boat Trips are canine-friendly for some trips – just call beforehand to check. Address: 53 Conham Hill, Bristol BS15 3AW

3. Westonbirt Arboretum

Prepare to be amazed by the English countryside with a visit to one of the finest collections of trees and shrubs in the world, Westonbirt, The National Arboretum. Whatever the season, exploring its magical grounds will delight doggies and owners alike. Go in autumn when trees blaze with fiery colours and delicious natural aromas scent the air or stunning candy-coloured blooms and bluebell carpets in spring. A short drive from Bristol, Westonbirt Arboretum’s dog-friendly Silk Wood takes up two thirds of the arboretum’s six hundred acres of trees (only the Old Arboretum is a dog-free zone), and has levels of accessibility to suit a range of visitors. Dog bins and poo bags are available on-site and doggy water is available at the restaurant. Address: Westonbirt, Tetbury GL8 8QS