Old Orchard Cottage, Wykeham

Old Orchard Cottage sits in the grounds of a farm at Wykeham, about twenty minutes inland from Scarborough on the edge of the forest, and it is one of the most straightforwardly dog-friendly places on this stretch of the North Yorkshire coast. What makes it work is privacy. The cottage stands on private farmland where nobody walks past, so a dog that barks at passers-by simply has nothing to bark at.

Dogs are welcome, and guests bringing them are unusually consistent about it, with a number describing it as the best holiday they have had with their dogs. Owners of anxious or vocal dogs particularly notice the quiet. The walking starts at the door: a short route through the grounds down to a small bridge with a picnic bench beside it, then on up the lane past sheep fields, with forest trails a little further out.

Inside, the cottage is warm and well thought out, with a log burner, a properly equipped kitchen, good towels and a welcome basket of breakfast things that guests bring up almost without exception. Deb and Andy, who run it, are described repeatedly as friendly and quick to answer questions without hovering. The setting is dark enough at night for genuine stargazing.

The location is a compromise worth understanding: you are twenty minutes from Scarborough rather than in it, which buys quiet at the cost of walking to a pub. There are chip shops and places to eat a short drive away, and further afield the Ryedale Folk Museum on the North York Moors welcomes dogs. The one recurring complaint has nothing to do with pets, which is that the main bedroom is large but has only a double bed, and that is tight if either of you is tall.

With a 4.7/5 paw rating, Old Orchard Cottage suits couples and solo travellers with one or two dogs who want somewhere genuinely quiet, private and rural as a base for the coast and the forest, and who do not mind driving for an evening out.