Deal is an amazing town to live in or visit if you have a dog. It’s super dog-friendly, and being a coastal town, there are loads of great places to walk within a stone’s throw of the centre.
While we love heading out on longer, more off-grid walks with our pooch, during the working week, we tend to keep things local and on winter days, when we are heading out on short walks due to the weather, the town has loads of great options.
Here’s a few of our favourites.
1. Deal – Walmer Beach and Green
Heading out the back of Deal Castle and right along the seafront is one of our favourite routes. Not least because it passes Hut 55, a great place to stop for coffee and a sweet (or savoury) treat. It’s not always open in winter and is weather-dependent, but our little girl won’t let us pass there without going in, even when it’s closed!
This walk takes you past the bandstand, the beach huts and the RNLI station and up towards Walmer Castle. If you want to keep going, you can walk all the way to Kingsdown, but we tend to do that as a separate walk!
We are also never allowed to do this walk without making a detour across the road before the bandstand to The Pet Food Shop. Someone knows where their food and treats come from and also loves to go and receive a fuss (and a sausage).
There are lots of dog walkers about on this walk, so we found it a great route for socialising and meeting other dogs, but avoid it if our little girl is ever a bit over-stimulated. We definitely avoided it when she was in season.
2. Deal Pier and promenade
Heading in the opposite direction, we love walking along Deal seafront and promenade towards Sandown Castle and taking a stroll along the quarter-mile-long pier. With plenty of places to sit and enjoy the view and The Deal Pier Kitchen at the end for a dog-friendly sit-down bite to eat or coffee on the go from the little kiosk outside, the pier is an iconic Deal landmark and a great place to enjoy the sea air.
Our little girl also loves a good sniff along the shingle beach, although she has not been brave enough to go in the water yet! The beach is not accessible to dogs year-round, so check the signs. From May 1 to September 30, between the hours of 9am and 8pm, dogs are not allowed on the stretch covering Deal Castle to Sandown Castle. Dogs on leads are allowed on the pier and on the promenade between Deal Castle and Sandown Castle all year.
We find this stretch better for on-lead walking and were more drawn to this location when our puppy was in season. Aside from one close encounter with an enthusiastic black Labrador, we found more dogs were on leads here, maybe because of the proximity to the road, and that made it easier when trying to avoid any unwanted attention!
3. Kingsdown beach
Although a little further out of town, Kingsdown Beach is such a stunning spot. On Christmas Day, we parked in the large, free car park just before you get to Walmer Castle and walked down to Kingsdown Beach. We were pleasantly surprised to find The Zetland open and had a hot chocolate outside to enjoy the view (although dogs are allowed into the pub).
When the tide is out, the beach here has lots of rockpools for exploring. You can also drive down here and park for free on the beach. And it’s a great access point for another of our favourite longer walks along Kingsdown cliffs! Another blog coming on that soon!
4. Sandown Castle – Sandwich Bay
Starting at the Sandown Castle Community Garden, on Sandown Road, and heading alongside the side of the Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club course towards Sandwich Bay, this is a more secluded walk that is still accessible from the town, which we love.
I always enjoy the moody skies over this stretch, and we have met plenty of other dog walkers every time we have done this walk.
Hog and Bean also run a little coffee and food truck known as the “Hog truck” by the community gardens. It is open 9am-2pm most days except Saturdays when they are at Deal Market. A great spot for a breakfast sarnie and a hot drink.
5. Betteshanger Park
Although it is slightly outside of the town centre, we love visiting Betteshanger Park and its dog-friendly cafe/restaurant, The Lamp Room.
There’s lots of different paths to explore but we particularly enjoy passing by the Blue Lake.
The only downside of Betteshanger is the parking costs – do not get caught out! We drove in there the other day and discovered the cafe was shut, so we went to drive out, and it cost us £2.50. The machine on the exit wasn’t working, so I had to jump out and walk all the way back to pay for a non-visit. That was frustrating.
But if you go on a good day and manage a walk and a trip to the café, then we don’t mind paying for parking, especially as this was a great and safe location for us to walk our pup when she was in season. You don’t come across as many dogs, and dogs need to be kept on leads, so it is ideal in those situations where you don’t want to come across off-lead dogs. We have also been to some great dog events at Betteshanger, including Pawfest and their doggy Christmas market, where we got some fantastic gifts.
6. Marke Wood Recreation Ground
Running alongside Liverpool Rd, Marke Wood Recreation Ground is a large sports field with free parking. This is a great open field spot for a run around. We don’t go here that often as we prefer a walk along the seafront, but sometimes it’s nice to have a change, and we used this space over the recreation ground behind Tides (where our dog got attacked) to practice recall with a long lead.
7. Town centre and churchyard
If the weather is bad and we need a bit of shelter from the sea, we take a little stroll around the churchyard behind St George’s Church and through the town. This little garden is beautiful and quiet, with benches dotted around. It is also full of super cute squirrels (thankfully, we do not have a squirrel chaser on our hands, but she is fascinated by them and the birds).
Deal town centre has loads of little roads to explore, and our girl loves sniffing around them more than she loves walking on the beach sometimes! Many a time, we’ve been taken down the back roads for a sniff-a-thon. There are loads of dog-friendly places in the town centre. We particularly enjoy getting coffee from Hope and Lane when we are up this end of town. But we have to mind walking down St George’s Passage as we have a dog that is scared of the pig statue outside of the butchers!
8. Southwall Road – Sholden or Betteshanger
Another walk we really enjoy is accessed via Southwall Road just past the Deal Household Waste and Recycling Centre. I don’t know what this footpath is called, but it leads up towards the back gate of Betteshanger (which is sometimes open), or you can hang a left along Marsh Lane and come out in Sholden. There’s lots of wildlife out this way and big open fields. It’s a pretty walk and a bit of a hidden gem.
Let us know where you like to walk your dogs in and around the town. We also like going on longer walks in and around Deal. Some of our favourites are Kingsdown Cliffs, the White Cliffs, St Margaret’s at Cliff to the lighthouse, Sandwich loop, Reculver, Botany Bay to Warpole Bay and Pegwell Bay. We’d love to hear yours.
