Spoiled walks – Page 3 – Cattle Safety

Several aggressive cows charging walkers in Snowdonia

Incident number: 1180

Response ID: 316,325,882

Date of incident: 14.08.25

Location: Trail north of Llyn Gwynant campground in Snowdonia

Status: Two people walking without a dog on PRoW

Chris’s Story

“Several cows were spaced around a narrow trail. Calves were nearby. One began mooing aggressively and approached us. I shouted and waved at it and it backed away. But as we passed it tried to come up behind us. More shouting and waving allowed us to move on. We then reached a lone cow slightly down the trail who moved aggressively towards us. We started moving slowly off trail and I took out my hiking poles. It charged by wife and I jumped in front waving the poles and shouting. It stopped and retreated, allowing us to carry on. We ran into a father and son heading down the trail and warned them. Hopefully they were ok.”

Not worth taking the risk with cows on path to the beautiful St Nectan’s Glen

Incident number: 1178

Response ID: 316,243,609

Date of incident: 08.06.25

Location: Halgabron, little Clifden farm at Tintagel footpath number 554/46/1 leading from the road to woodland adjoining St Nectans glen.

Status: Single walker with dog on lead on PRoW

Sue’s Story

“I booked a week camping at little Clifden farm. The footpath leads direct from the site to woodland and a local attraction St Nectans Glen. I assumed I could walk on the path daily with my dog. However the site owner has 3 large bulls in the field which put me off using it. I had to do a 1.5 mile detour some of it on a dangerous stretch of road instead. The site owner said they are friendly, however when I stood near the start of the path they looked very large and menacing, I was not prepared to take the risk. Had I known there were bulls on the footpath I would not have booked the holiday as I had planned to walk in the woodland daily with my dog, so this somewhat ruined my holiday.”

Sue’s further beliefs

“The site owner advertises this path as a route to the scenic waterfall so should at least make the path safer. She encourages people to walk through telling them the bulls are friendly and will follow them across. She told me very young camping children were running up to them feeding them grass. This is reckless behaviour in my opinion, and an accident waiting to happen, as a farmer she should know the risk, she is charging £20 a night for camping and ignoring the safety of guests and the public.”

Bullocks far too interested in a walker to feel safe

Incident number 1179
Date: 12.08.25
Site: The estate of Garthgwynion, in Llynfant valley, near Machynlleth.
Group of bullocks
1 person, no dog

Report: “I was about to cross the last metal gate, before continuing the Welsh Coastal Path from Machynlleth to Borth, (which passes through the estate of Garthwynion,) when I found a group of bullocks assembled on the other side, right in the middle of the path. I whistled loudly with my emergency whistle, and waved my arms frantically while shouting, and the animals got scared and run away a few meters from me, enough to let me cross. As I was passing in front of them, one of the animals decided to come towards me at a fast pace, soon followed by the rest of them. I sped towards the entrance gate of the estate, which fortunately wasn’t too far away.”

“No injury luckily, but it was a frightening experience.”

Close call near Ilminster

Report: 1175

Date: 2/8/25

Location: Near Ilminster, Somerset. Exact location: lined.otter.trout

1 person no dog

Report from Matthew: “I saw cattle were in the field but I managed to sneak into the field and walked quietly around the edge without them noticing but as I was nearing the exit, the herd noticed me and charged – very fast and making a lot of noise! I continued walking quickly (not running) and narrowly made it to the gate and got through just before they reached me. Scary.”

Surrounded by cattle in Warwickshire

Report: 1174

Date: 2/8/25

Location: We think the path we were on was the Hanson Track, Warwickshire. If you are driving down the A3400 out of Shipston, you take the turn right signposted to Tidmington that leads to Ditchford Road – it’s a field on the right marked as a public footpath just beyond High Furze and opposite a footpath on the other side.

2 people no dog

Report: “We entered the field on the footpath and started walking across, we turned and noticed cows approaching from the other side of the field at speed. We were walking along the edge of the field. The cows closed in quickly and we could not leave the way we came in. We saw another gate and moved towards that thinking we could shut it but we could not as the gate was tied open with pink twine. Cows came through and all surrounded us closely behind the gate. They were making some noises and a few kept trying to creep closer. We were worried that at any point one or some of them could potentially charge or trample us as we were trapped by the wall and an open gate. We stood trying to appear calm for 10 mins but they were not going anywhere and we could not find a number for the farm. “

“The cows kept coming close and we had to sit on top of the gate which wasn’t very high. We felt like we were left with little choice but to call emergency services as we were fearful of walking through the crowd of cattle that had not taken their eyes off us. We were told by emergency services that we had to try and make our way through first by being noisy and trying to walk through them. Although reluctant we felt we had to follow advice and started to yell “move” loudly and clap. A few started to back off and make enough room for us to walk past them. We managed to leave the field safely but were very intimidated as this could have gone horribly wrong.”

“We learned that we may have been given bad advice by being told to be loud.”

“The only signs visible was instructing us to keep dogs on leads and stick to the edges which we did. There was no mention of cattle or how to respond. We also didn’t see the cattle when we entered the field.”

“We ended the call with the police once we exited the field but we don’t think cows should be in a field labelled as a public footpath especially when there are lone walkers and dog walkers. We don’t want this to happen to others who may be elderly or more vulnerable (or less lucky!!)”

Chased by cattle on an exposed part of the Cornish Coastal Path

Report: 1167

Date: 26/7/2025

Location: Coastal path in North Cornwall, near Castle Point, St Gennys

1 person and dog

Report: “The cows ran to me and surrounded me, chasing my dog into a blackthorn bush over the cliff edge and also surrounding me. I stood my ground but had to shout at them to get a way out.

My dog was stuck in the blackthorn, but was lucky to be unharmed, I managed to get her out. She was less than a foot off from going over the edge of the cliff

The cows should not have been on such an exposed path. I am confident around cows so could deal with them. But the incident was very frightening, they were after my dog and very nearly killed her by forcing her off the cliff.”

“Cows with calves should not be put on fields with footpaths”

Report:1166

Date: 26/7/2025

Location: Grid Ref (start): SK08765494 Grid Ref (end): SK08735454 Footpath Grindon, Staffordshire

Group of walkers with dogs

Report: “Half the group, including a dog on a lead, walked through the field with no incident. We all gave the cows and calves a wide berth.

2 of the party were further behind with another dog on a lead. One cow spotted the second dog and became extremely aggressive. The walkers backed away and let go of the dog. The cow charged at the dog and chased it until it ran out of the field. The walkers managed to get out of that field without being hurt but it was close to being an incident with injury. We then had to find an alternative way for them to reach the village out if sight of the cows.

I will be reporting to this to the Local authority, but it is not easy to find out how to report these incidents. I don’t think cows and calves should be put in fields with public footpaths, the risks are too high.”

Walker frightened by cattle near Aldbury

Case No. 1159

Date of Incident 14 07 2025

Location On footpath on the outskirts of Aldbury, Hertfordsire, England

I person, 1 dog – on lead

Account “I was on my usual early morning dog walk that includes a field that had recently had a herd of black cows put in it. I’d been nervous of walking through it ever since, but a friend persuaded me cows are completely harmless and we walked through together and she demonstrated how to make my arms wide and make a loud strange noise if I felt threatened by them, which would warn them away.

Phil is frightened off the path by bellowing cattle

Case No. 1157

Date of Incident 03 07 2025

Location On PROW immediately after gate from Swinburns Park Estate near Watermillock, Cumbria

People 2, no dog

Account “We stopped walking as soon as we saw the cows on the path in front of us. The cows were single file walking up the path. The lead cow was dappled grey colour and as soon as it saw us it bellowed loudly and started walking towards us followed by the rest of the herd all making loud bellowing noises. We had no option to turn and run for our lives back to the gate. Once we were on the other side of the gate the grey cow had moved off the path into the tall ferns and saw us over the stone wall and came running towards us bellowing.” Respondent suggests that the following may help: “Warning signs on the path and preferably get the pathway fenced off from the grazing area.”

Lottie is shouted at for walking along a public footpath

Case No. 1156

Date of Incident 03 07 2025

Location: On PROW between Germoe and Porthleven, Cornwall. WtW – ample.lateral.dreamers

I person and 1 dog

Group of bullocks

Lottie’s account “I was following a marked footpath, my dog was on a lead. There were no signs about cows. I entered the field and then went along the path to an opening on the path which joins to the next field. In that field were bullocks who quickly stood up and came towards me. I felt I couldn’t escape so I stood on a wall and had to call for help. The farmer arrived after 15 minutes and shouted at me saying it was my fault for entering a field with cows when I had a dog. He lead the cows away so I could walk out of the field. My dog is safe with livestock. There are no signs warning that over 20 bullocks are on the footpath, there is no safe place to escape them and they surrounded us.”

“I was frightened.”

Aggressive cattle scare a family group with young children

Case No. 1149

Date of Incident: 21 06 2025

Location: On PROW in Potten End, Hertfordshire between Water End Road and Hempstead Lane.

Family group, no dog

Cows with calves in field

Account “We were walking to the Mad Squirrel brewery last Saturday afternoon around 3pm. There were 4 adults, 2 toddlers and one baby. We had two buggies (fortunately). My friends who live in Potten End have had no problems when walking this route in the past however on this day, a number of cows were in the bushes to the side of the path and as we were walking along the path and closer towards their direction, they started to approach and surround us. We continued walking but became quite fearful with how aggressive and intimidating they were. In the end, we managed to get past them but they kept trying to charge at us and move off at the last moment. We managed to get to the end of the path and throw the children over the fence whilst one adult in our group had to swing a pushchair continuously to prevent them from coming closer towards us. They continued to progress and once the rest of the adults had got through the gate, he ran and threw the buggy over the fence before the cow could reach him. Needless to say, we were covered in cow faeces due to throwing the buggies over the fences after wheeling through whatever was in the field due to fearing for our safety.”

Additional comment “More warning signs are needed. Hostile cows like that should not be left in fields where there is a public footpath. We had very young children who were extremely frightened and as parents, we genuinely feared for theirs and our lives.”

Ramblers group charged by a cow in Yorkshire

Case No. 1147

Date of Incident: 24 06 2025

Location: On PROW, Near Birchen Lea Farm, Station Rd., Harecroft near Bingley West Yorks

over 10 Ramblers, no dog

Cattle with calves in field

Account: “One cow was actually on the footpath, so we gave the cow a wide berth; the rest of the herd (with calves) was a little way off. The single cow charged at myself and another person as we tried to walk around it. We quickly ran to the stone boundary wall whilst other people in our Ramblers walking group persuaded it to move away allowing us to pass. This was a terrifying experience.”

Additional comment: “Cows with calves should not be in a field with a public footpath or the path should be fenced off from cattle.”

This attack has been reported to the local council and HSE