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Question: How are heathland vegetation dynamics affected by different goat grazing management? Location: Cantabrian heathlands in Illano, Asturias, northern Spain. Methods: During 4 years, vegetation dynamics (structural composition, canopy height and floristic diversity) were studied under three goat grazing treatments with three replicates: high stocking rate (11.7 goats ha -1 ) with a local Celtiberic breed, high stocking rate (15 goats ha -1 ) with a commercial Cashmere breed, and low stocking rate (6.7 goats ha -1 ) with the Cashmere breed. Results: The relative cover of woody plants, particularly heather species, decreased more whilst herbaceous cover increased more under local Celtiberic than under Cashmere breed grazing. Within Cashmere treatments, the cover and height of live shrubs decreased more and the herbaceous cover increased more under high than under low stocking rate. Redundancy analysis showed a significant effect of treatment x year interaction on floristic composition. Higher species richness was recorded under local goat grazing, but Shannon diversity index fell in the fourth year on these plots due to the dominance achieved by two grass species. Conclusions: Local Celtiberic goat grazing at such a high stocking rate (11.7 goats ha -1 ) hinders the development of sustainable systems on these heathlands, both in environmental and productive terms, due to the limitations in soil fertility. Nevertheless, Celtiberic goats could be useful for controlling excessive shrub encroachment and reducing fire hazard. Cashmere goat grazing at high stocking rate promoted the highest Shannon diversity by generating a better balance between woody and herbaceous plants, while shrub dominance was not altered under the low stocking rate.