Is Ireland a dog-friendly country? After three weeks of camping around the country, our dog-friendly travel expert Lottie Gross finds out.
Some destinations are made for dog-friendly travel: Scotland with its endless walking opportunities, England with its myriad cosy country pubs for snoozing by the fire, France for its wide open spaces and quiet corners that are perfect for reactive dogs like mine. Ireland, however, is almost the opposite. The Emerald Isle has glorious white-sand beaches and dramatic coastal scenery, and there are cliff walks and long-distance hiking trails aplenty – it’s just a shame that dogs aren’t allowed to experience much of it.
On my first trip to Ireland with the dog, I visited the Sheep’s Head peninsula in the south, home to the 146km-long Sheep’s Head Way. The weather was stunning, our little house – the Artist’s Cottage and Studio – had a gorgeous garden and a plunge pool, and there was the promise of walks on the hills for wonderful coastal views. Unfortunately, as we hiked up the hill behind the house, we were met with signs on every gate and stile saying “NO DOGS. WE LAY RAT POISON”.
I had been told by the owners of the accommodation that we could hike with the dog here, but local farmers and livestock keepers had other ideas: due to the number of sheep along the trail, dogs were now banned, and so we ended up having to end our day-hike on the road. This isn’t the first time I’ve encountered such restrictions in Ireland. On my latest trip – a three-week-long caravan trip around both Ireland and Northern Ireland – I found that several cliff walks in popular tourist hotspots like Dingle denied access to dogs because of livestock. And so many of the country’s beaches are off-limits, too, due to grazing sheep in the dunes or Blue Flag rules that state dogs need to be banned throughout summer.
Then there’s dinner. Finding a pub, cafe or restaurant here that will permit your dog inside can be tricky. I had many a hand-poured Guinness on my latest trip and some excellent food – the Louis Armstrong toast (smoked salmon and Irish cheddar) at Nancy’s in County Donegal was a highlight – but most of it was consumed outside under makeshift shelters largely used by the smokers nipping out for a quick puff. Not the ideal dining environment.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t come to Ireland, though. It might be harder to find the right places to visit with a dog, but when you do it’s all the more rewarding. We found an unexpectedly dog-friendly town in County Kerry when we arrived in Glenbeigh. Glenross Caravan & Camping has a large lawn where dogs are allowed off lead for morning runs, and the local dog-friendly Peadar’s pub is just a 10-minute walk away. Even closer was Emilie’s, a bijou little pizza restaurant with excellent biodynamic wines and sourdough baked daily and just a five-minute drive away is Rossbeigh Strand, a beach with several kilometres of wide, open sandy space for the dog to run free at low tide.
Glenbeigh felt like a rare dog-friendly gem, but it’s not the only town in Ireland that’s opening up more for dog owners. The laws around dogs in pubs and restaurants changed in 2017, and since then things have been gradually changing. Arty was fawned over at the Skelling Six18 Distillery shop in Cahersiveen, as well as in several of the town’s gift shops, and he was welcomed with gusto into the Fisherman’s Bar in Portmagee, where he snaffled a little lobster from my plate.
So while Ireland may not be the most dog-friendly country in Europe, there are small pockets of delight to be found with your dog by your side. Plus, getting here with the dog in tow is the easiest part, as several Stena Line ferries have dog-friendly cabins – we took the overnight crossing from Liverpool to Belfast, an adventure in itself.
What’s news in the dog travel world?
Despite all the hoohaa around the use of EU Pet Passports for residents of Great Britain, several travellers have reported still being able to use their own Pet Passports for travel between GB and the EU, and Brittany Ferries has this advice on their website which contravenes the official notice released by the EU in April. With the UK-EU summit delayed again, we’re still awaiting details of the new passport system that will come into play next year, so for now it’s best to contact your travel provider to check what documentation they are accepting.
There’s lots to be excited about in Scotland, as the 2026 World Sheep Dog Trials will be held in the Borders (home of the Border Collie) and dogs (on leads) are welcome to join you as spectators. Further north, a new dog-friendly chalet has opened on the Moray Firth near Inverness.
Finally, my Dog-Friendly Weekends Cotswolds guide came out in June and it’s now officially on the shelves. I have lived on the edge of the Cotswolds for most of my life and so this is a culmination of some of my favourite activities, attractions, walks and pubs – and plenty of boujie hotels, of course.
Just back from… the Cotswolds & Ireland
Ahead of our camping trip in Ireland, Arty and I spent a night at one of the Cotswolds’ most dog-friendly hotels: Homewood. The property has a dog creche (must be booked in advance), an enclosed agility paddock, an in-house dog shop stocked by Bath Country Pets, and enrichment toys to keep them busy over dinner.
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