Fifth Milestone Annexe, Dunnington

Fifth Milestone Annexe is a compact self-contained annexe behind a house on Hull Road in Dunnington, five miles east of York, and for dog owners its best feature is the enclosed garden. The annexe has its own entrance and its own private courtyard, which guests travelling with dogs come back to again and again: it means the dog can be let out without a lead, a road or a shared space in between.

Dogs are welcome for an extra charge and the hosts ask to be told in advance, so it needs arranging when you book rather than on arrival. The welcome is otherwise well organised, with a message on the morning of arrival carrying key codes and timings, tea, coffee, milk and biscuits waiting inside, and a folder covering everything from the heating timer to where to eat. The hosts live on site and tend to come out and check you have what you need.

The location is genuinely convenient for York without the city prices. A bus stop into the centre is a five minute walk, the park and ride is six minutes by car, and the village pub is about twenty minutes on foot. But the road is the thing to weigh before booking with a dog. The annexe sits directly on a busy main road, and while opinions on the traffic noise indoors range from unnoticeable to considerable, the bigger issue is outside it. Guests with dogs describe the pavements as narrow and overgrown, which makes walking out of the property awkward and, for some, not safe enough to enjoy. There is no green space immediately to hand, so plan to drive or catch the bus to walks rather than stepping out to one.

Two smaller notes. The staircase is open-tread, which unsettles smaller dogs enough that some need carrying up it. And guests travelling with big, moulting dogs have wished for a vacuum on site. With a 4.4/5 paw rating, this works best for dog owners who want a well-kept, well-priced base for York and are content to drive to their walks, and less well for anyone hoping to step out of the door straight onto a footpath.