Nahant Doggie Beach: off leash all year, and the town beach rules

Section 13 of the Nahant police bylaws carries both halves of the rule. A dog off its owner's property must be held firmly on a leash, and no dog may be on any Town beach from May through September 30, except that Doggie Beach on Castle Road opposite the Coast Guard Station may be used year-round for exercising dogs not on a leash. The town's beach page says it plainly: Doggie Beach is the only beach on Nahant open to dogs all year, and dogs need not be leashed there.

The bylaw also draws an edge. For this section, Doggie Beach does not extend to the beach behind the residential area of Castle Road, so a dog that wanders along the shore toward the houses has left the off-leash zone. Off the sand, the town's Animal Control page describes a 24-hour leash law, under which every dog must be on a leash held by its walker whenever it leaves home, so the leash goes back on before the road.

For Doggie Beach the town lists two options. Residents park in the lot next to Lowlands Park, and visitors use the public lot at Nahant Beach, also called Long Beach, which the town's page lists at $10. That lot belongs to Nahant Beach Reservation, the long beach along the causeway, which the town notes is run by the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation, so its fees, dates and dog rules are DCR's rather than Nahant's.

The town's parks page places Lowlands Park next to Seaside Variety, a short walk from the Nahant Life Saving Station, and across from the MBTA bus stop at Nahant Road and Castle Road, so a visitor without a sticker can also come by bus. Keep the dog on its leash along the road. The state beach on the causeway has its own dog season, set by DCR, and our Nahant Beach page covers it before you let the dog onto that sand.

A dog that has run free on a rocky North Shore beach comes home with salt in the coat and sand deep in the undercoat. Our bath and brush at 210 Eastern Ave in Gloucester rinses both out with a warm bath, blow-dry and brush-out, from $55 for a dog of 25 pounds or less to $95 for an extra-large long coat. A face trim adds $10 and nail clipping $16, and grooming needs no evaluation.

Nahant is outside the Pup Van towns, so ask us about pick-up. Closer to Gloucester, the city's beaches take dogs from October 1, Good Harbor on even-numbered days through March 31 and Wingaersheek on odd-numbered days through April 30, and both close to dogs for the summer. That makes a beach where a dog can run in July, as Doggie Beach allows, rare on this stretch of coast.