Best Dog Parks and Off-Leash Areas in Belfast

750 acres of wild basalt hillside rising 368 m above the city, with the famous 'Napoleon's Nose' cliff profile said to have inspired Jonathan Swift's Gulliver. Off-leash on the open mountain paths once away from the Belfast Castle gardens. The 4.5 km loop trail to McArt's Fort summit is the classic walk, with panoramic views over the whole Belfast Lough on a clear day.

Belfast's first municipal park (opened 1871) and at 100 acres still the largest in the city centre, on the south bank of the Lagan a 15-minute walk from City Hall. Off-leash on the central open meadow, on-leash on the perimeter avenues lined with mature beech and oak. The Ormeau Park dog-walking community is one of the most active in Belfast, with informal morning and evening gatherings near the Park Road entrance.

An 18 km flat car-free towpath following the River Lagan and its disused canal navigation from the Stranmillis weir in south Belfast all the way to Lisburn. Off-leash anywhere the path widens away from the cycle route. Multiple access points let you do as little as a 30-minute loop from Stranmillis Embankment or a full half-day walk into the Lagan Valley Regional Park countryside.