High Court blocks right to wild camping on Dartmoor.

 

The right to wild camp on Dartmoor has been lost after a private landowner argued in court that the right never existed.

Alexander Darwall, a hedge-fund manager and Dartmoor's sixth largest landowner, brought the case against Dartmoor national park. Darwall, the owner of the 4,000-acre Blachford estate, offers pheasant shoots, deerstalking, and holiday rentals on his land.

Until the ruling by Sir Julian Flaux, the chancellor of the high court, it was assumed there was a right to wild camp under the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985. Darwall's lawyers argued that the right didn't exist across Dartmoor. The ruling is effective immediately and means Darwall can remove people off his land.

The ruling is likely to lead to increased demands for a right to roam law in England which already exists in Scotland, where people are allowed to wild camp. We could see a campaign of mass trespass on Dartmoor by protestors, similar to the ones that took place in the Peak District in the 1930s, which led to people being imprisoned and fights between walkers and gamekeepers.

Dartmoor national park are considering an appeal and some campers have vowed to continue to wild camp on Dartmoor regardless of the court ruling.