More than 500 people gathered on Dartmoor on Monday to call for expanded Right to Roam laws across England following last week’s Supreme Court decision that restored wild camping on the moor without landowner permission.
Landowners Alexander and Diana Darwall had claimed that moorland camping is a danger to the environment. Campaigners countered that extended land access would help the UK tackle its ecological crisis by increasing the public’s connection to nature.
The High Court initially ruled in favour of the Darwalls, who own a 4,000-acre estate on Dartmoor’s Stall Moor, in 2022. The Court of Appeal overturned that decision seven months later and that decision has now been upheld by the Supreme Court.
“The more exposure you have to the natural world, the more familiarity with it, the more likely you are to want to look after it,” said Tom Usher, chief executive of Dartmoor Preservation Association.
The ruling means Dartmoor remains the only place in England where wild camping without landowner consent is legal.
The campaigners who rallied on Haytor in Dartmoor National Park, south Devon called for those access rights to be expanded across the nation.
They also celebrated the Supreme Court victory. Attendees held up cardboard stars and sang folk-singer Woody Guthrie’s environmentalist anthem “This Land Is Your Land”, changing the lyrics to “This Moor Is Your Moor”.
Caroline Voaden, the Liberal Democrat MP for South Devon who attended the event, ironically “thanked” Alexander Darwall for bringing national attention to the Right to Roam campaign through his Supreme Court challenge.
“He’s actually done more for the access rights campaign than anybody else possibly could have done,” she said.
Voaden voiced her support for a Right to Roam Act in England following the Scottish model that legalised private countryside access in 2003.
“This week has been an amazing week for momentum for the campaign because it’s not just ending with a victory for confirming the status quo on Dartmoor,” said Guy Shrubsole, co-founder of the Right to Roam campaign. “Now Dartmoor’s the model for other national parks.”
