Category: near misses

Incident number: 1216

Response ID: 318,553,250

Date of incident: 23.11.25

Location: Lower Weare, Somerset, the public foot path just by the primary school, 2nd field in, (what 3 words /// lurching.truly.relocated)

Status: Single walker with dog on lead on PROW

Gino’s story

“The first field by the school sometimes has female cows, the next field after the gate has a feeding area right by the gate & is 3 large fields joined & it’s always full of bulls not sure how old but there very big, they might be bullocks, we got chased by them as they were blocking the foot path & exit, there is another field round here the same happened, you can’t seem to use any of the public foot paths all the fields are always filled with bulls, got chased by about 20 previously at another spot I’ll also report”

Incident number: 1213

Response ID: 317,470,880

Date of incident: 26.10.25

Location: Footpath near the town of Eye in Suffolk, a few fields away from the playing field/par

Status: Two people with dog on lead on PROW

Holly’s story

“Footpath we were following passed through a field with cows in. My husband went in first on his own and they seemed very friendly and inquisitive, coming right up to him. I had our dog on a short lead, she is a small dog and wasn’t barking or being aggressive. I went to enter the field and after a couple of steps a large female cow tried to tip me over from behind. I didn’t fall over but let go of the dogs lead by accident. When I turned around I saw the herd of about 20 cows all charging after our dog. I was terrified they would trample her. She is quick and so managed to out run them an get over to the far corner of the field. I ran around the edge of the field to reach her, picked her up and then ran to the nearest gate to get out. The cows were quickly following us and we only just got out in time. A terrifying experience that could have been much worse, I’ve never experienced aggression from cows like that before. Some of the cows looked a little bit smaller so perhaps were young ones which would explain the aggression.”

Incident number: 1212

Response ID: 317,461,846

Date of incident: 26.10.25

Location: Between end of Wades Lane and River Orwell at Shotley, Suffolk

Status: Two people without dog on PROW

Dee’s story

“Cows circled us, one with horns butted my husband several times. We tried to stay next to the hedge. The cow wouldn’t leave us alone. The other cows followed but ran ahead. We turned towards the gate and ran, cow came after us. I fell over, went into full panic attack mode. My husband stayed calm and helped me to the gate. It was a close shave, I felt they were on the verge of stampeding.”

Dee adds “Cows shouldn’t have been there. They were aggressive and dangerous”

Incident number: 1208

Response ID: 317,248,049

Date of incident: 10.10.25

Location: On The Cotswold Way. On the approach to Winchcombe just before Puck Pit Lane GL54 5JQ

Status: Two people with dogs on lead on PROW

“We were walking on The Cotswold Way. The two of us entered a very large field with two very quiet, placid dogs, both on leads. Due to the steep topography of the field we couldn’t see the cattle initially and also couldn’t see the direction of the path and where the exit gate was. It was a very large area, consisting of two connecting fields which were not very visible and the exit gate was not very obvious. As we headed over the top of the first field we then saw a small group of young, black bullocks eating at a trough. We couldn’t see where the path went but decided to give the cattle a wide berth and, as they were busy eating, they looked docile and ok to walk past at a distance. As we continued, the field then dipped down towards a dividing ditch and then into a second connecting field. We then noticed one of the cows at the trough had taken an interest in us and was walking quickly towards the bridge over the ditch to the second field. We were lower down and had to cross the ditch without a bridge as we were avoiding the cattle. We still didn’t know where the exit gate was and where the path went. As we crossed the ditch into the second field we then saw a second group of black young bullocks but they seemed far enough away in the corner but then we realised they were close to the exit gate which we could now see. However, these cattle started mooing which I knew was a bad sign. At the same time the bullock who had taken an interest, was now running into the second field towards us and was now bringing the first group with him. We were both really scared but tried not to panic. We walked quickly but quietly. By this time the second group were becoming increasingly interested. We were terrified by this point but just managed to push our dogs under the barbed wire and clamber over the gate before the cattle got to us. At this point the gate was surrounded by both groups of cattle. We had reached safety just in time but we then saw two runners in the field coming towards the gate. They stopped and looked very apprehensive. We tried to distract the cattle and kept them looking at us rather than the runners and they were eventually able to get through them and over the gate. We knew there were more walkers behind us on the Cotswold Way route and we just hope they managed to get through these fields ok.”

They want “More rights of way paths fenced off from cattle, especially routes that are regularly walked, such as The Cotswold Way and other long distance trails. These incidents are becoming more and more common and are really terrifying.”

Incident number: 1206

Response ID: 317,153,345

Date of incident: 7.10.25

Location: Near South Brent Devon(What 3 words ///nuggets.inspects.owns)

Status: Lone walker with dog on lead on PROW

Reporter’s story

“I was walking my 7 month old golden retriever, there were some cows about 150 away to the left. Passed several cows and had no problems. The cow started making a move towards us, we went the other way and it galloped straight up to us in a standoff. It started snorting and shaking its head then went for my dog, my dog lashed back in self defence which stunned the cow. We made a swift getaway having to run through unpathed bogs.

Once we got around 200m the cow appeared to make its way towards us, so we had to full on sprint towards Ugborough beacon to get shelter if it did come again”

Incident number: 1203

Response ID: 317,000,654

Date of incident: 28.09.25

Location: Great Barford. Not far from Bedford. Public footpath near the river

Status: Four people (2 children) with no dog on PROW

Alesya’a story

“We walked on a path near the river. Walked to the end of the field, a group of what appeared to be young cows were quite far away in another corner. We simply walked. No dog. Two young kids (5 and 10). Suddenly we seen cows start to run. There was nowhere for us to run or hide so we stepped to the edge of the river bank near a tree with an intention to jump in the river should cows attack. The cows surrounded us and kept coming so close I even petted one of the cows as I tried to calm the situation down and tried to somehow show the cows we are not a threat. There was one that looked like young bull. We were properly surrounded for about 10 minutes and kids were very scared. Then somehow I managed to convince the most eager cow to let us pass, and we were able to leave.

Very distressing.”

Incident number: 1202

Response ID: 317,000,253

Date of incident: 14.08.25

Location: At Long Ash near Yelverton Devon

Status: A couple on a PROW

Myra’s story:

“We were walking towards a cow, giving a wide berth so not to be too close on the footpath. As I began walking past, it suddenly started to charge towards me. I ran backwards got trapped up against a hawthorn tree and I  tore my t-shirt.

I am too anxious to walk our dog there now alone. It was a very scary experience. The cows are huge and dread to think if it had made contact the injuries I would have sustained.

I think you should have warning signs put up in the area. I see lots of elderly and young children walking in the area.”

Incident number: 1197

Response ID: 316,726,758

Date of incident: 11.09.25

Location: Angles way path from Wortham Ling near Diss Suffolk.

Status: Lone walker on PROW with dog on lead

 Ben’s account:

“I was Following angles way path from Wortham Ling near Diss Suffolk. It also covers a circular walk that I can’t remember the name of.

Following the signage for angles way we came to a footpath gate. Behind spread out in quite a small field were over 30 plus cows with calves . The cows were all different. Me and my two dogs on leads entered the field and kept to the edge. The first few cows moved away allowing us to move forwards. Then those cows followed behind us. Near the exit to the field was even more cows with calves blocking our exit. At this moment a black and white cow charged at us and tried to ram the dogs. This is when we retreated back to where we came in. At that moment every cow in the field ran over mooing and we were almost squashed into the fence but we managed to get out in time. Before this field there are loads of empty fields and this seemed almost deliberate that the farmer placed them there to prevent people using the path.”

He adds “Just seemed an excessive amount of cows in a small field, no way to avoid them.”

Incident number: 1196

Response ID: 316,710,944

Date of incident: 09.09.25

Location: Newtown (Hadrian’s wall)

Status: On published walking route.

Lisa and Richard’s story “It was in a field just before the entrance of Newtown which is part of Hadrian’s wall. The field is signposted as part of the walking route. We walked across the field and it looked like it was feeding time. The field was big but most of the cows had gathered together near the exit of the field. We noticed them starting to quickly starting to move across so we moved to the left as far away as possible. As about 4 started running we tried to keep calm but they ran at pace so we had no alternate but to run to the safety side ditch where they tried to run down at us. We has to climb the metal fence to the adjacent sheep field to escape and I cut my hand. They followed us round the perimeter but we got out safely from the other field. They didn’t seem to then bother 2 women walkers who came 5 mins after us but they had spooked 3 girls ahead of us.”

They would like “That the farmer is involved and a fence is put up or the field next to it with sheep is used instead”

Incident number: 1193

Response ID: 316,567,827

Date of incident: 01.01.25

Location: Snowdonia path from Maes Cwm to Moel Eilio (Grid reference SH 572 590)

Status: Between 3 and 5 people walking on PRoW with dogs on leads

Eryri Local’s story

“We were walking along the bridleway traveling south east towards Maes Cwm to ascend Moel Eilio. We were near to the stile before we saw them which was 20m away. I wanted to turn back as we had 2 dogs with us but my friend had been past them recently and thought we would be OK. We continued on quietly keeping the dogs close. My dog was attached to my waist harness with a canicross bungee lead which I failed to release before one of the cows charged us. She kept ramming into myself, my dog and my friend. My friend let her dog loose but my dog was trying to get away but as he was attached to me I was being dragged around and I was unable to release the carabiner whilst the cow continued to charge and headbutt us. I don’t quite know how we managed to escape without being knocked to the floor and injured. We managed to run to the gate and climb the stile to escape. He is an ex cattle dog so knows how to behave around cattle. I wrote to the council who claimed to have gone there to look. My friend went that was a few weeks later to find the cattle had been fed directly on the bridleway and he retreated as they were starting to approach him. There is no safe alternative around that path to avoid cattle when they are loose there.”

They continue “I have a deep phobia now of cows causing me a lot of issues with my outdoor work as a Mountain leader. This is a local route to me that I used to run frequently now I have to do a large detour over Snowdon if I come across cattle on the path from Moel Eilio which they are now frequenting (Maes Gwm)