Brandon Country Park dog walks, Suffolk
Photo © Driving with Dogs 
Photo © Driving with Dogs 
Photo © Driving with Dogs
Description
This is a delightful rural break in the grounds of a former stately house. The park itself is quite large and the network of paths takes you through varied aspects of the grounds. In the middle you may stumble upon the Bliss family mausoleum. Close to Brandon and Thetford, this is a good doggie pitstop from the A11.
Details
GPS coords for car park: 52.4360, 0.6256 P&D car park. Copper Beech cafe - really nice home-made cakes. WC+disabled+RADAR, picnic area by the cafe, visitor centre and gift shop, children's play area' dog bins and bags provided
Walk
There are numerous paths to follow in the park, including three coloured trails (red trail: 1.25 miles, purple trail: 3.5 miles, orange trail: 6 miles). Full details of these and other walks can be found at the visitor centre. However, there's lots of exploring to be done by just following your dog's nose. We did the red route and really enjoyed it. Some of the paths are surfaced.
callmewilko
Green 30 Points
RRayner1
Pink 276 PointsGreat for children
We meet up with family here and the playground is great. There are plenty of dog walks around the area, of different lengths, and a lovely walled garden (no dogs allowed). The cafe has seating outside where dogs are allowed.
Curlycat
Green 30 PointsDidn't get further than the car park
OK, so we could have given this more of a try but it was the least dog friendly country park ever. According to notices in the car park, dogs were to be kept on leads at all times in the park, and were not allowed in any part of the Copper Beach cafe. I understand that parks need to cater for a wide range of users, but the whole point for us on a long car journey is to be able to give the dogs a good run, off lead, and then for us to grab a bite to eat. We haven't been anywhere else I've found on 'Driving with Dogs' where this wasn't the case. As it was a chilly morning in April, we regretted having parted with £1.50 for the parking, and left.
Are there regular users who could let us know if the leads-on restriction is applied everywhere in Brandon Park? As an alternative, we would suggest stopping in the surrounding Thetford Forest and even Elveden Courtyard just down the road has a trail attached (on-lead but free parking).
2019 From DwD: We've contacted the park and been told that they are very dog-friendly, local dog walking groups meet there. The on-lead rule is around the cafe, car park and facilities - which is totally normal.
Edited: 4th March 2024. The details of this listing may have changed, and though the Driving with Dogs team do our best to confirm the accuracy of every listing, we cannot guarantee that the details are fully up to date and accurate. If you know that any aspect of this listing is incorrect, please suggest an edit to let us know.
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Good walks and great coffee
We stopped off here and enjoyed a good walk with the dogs through the forest. Pay to park is required with two brackets - under two hours or all day and not expensive. We paid £2 for two hours and managed a 4.3k walk and cafe visit.
Cafe has lots of picnic tables for people using the cafe and dogs are allowed at them. Added excitement for us was the fighter jets overhead, our dogs totally ignored them as squirrels are much more interesting.
We will visit again on our return journey.