Meet Alexander Darwall - Britain's most loathed landowner.

 

Landowner - Alexander Darwall

Although half of Scotland is owned by just 500 people, The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, gives everyone in Scotland the right to roam over land and inland water. It also extends to wild camping.

A friend of mine told me recently that he'd enjoyed a brilliant summer holiday touring the Highlands of Scotland and the Outer Hebrides wild camping with his family. They would travel about in their van and find somewhere suitable to pitch their tents at the end of the day. He said there were lots of German tourists doing the same thing.

That would be illegal in England because the laws regarding private property, require a person to seek consent from the landowner. For many years, one of the few places in England where you could go wild camping, was Dartmoor. That is also now illegal, since a wealthy landowner and city hedge fund manager, called Alexander Darwall, who owns the 4,000 acre Blachford estate, took legal action to ban wild camping on his land on Dartmoor. The High Court Judge, Sir Julian Flaux, ruled that visitors did not have the right to camp overnight without the landowner’s consent, and that there is no local custom of camping which has the force of law. He dismissed arguments from the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA), who asserted that the public had the right of access to the commons on foot and on horseback for the purpose of open air recreation. The Judge said this didn't extend to the public having the right to camp or wild camp without the permission of a landowner. The court ruling became a cause celebre and has led to protests on Dartmoor and elsewhere, and demands for the right to roam and wild camp in England.

Darwall and his wife Dianna, are now regarded as the most loathed landowners in England. According to a local legend, when a wealthy businessman sought to make a profit by farming on Dartmoor, Old Crockern - the mythological protector of the moors - cursed the venture and drove the man away. It seems that many wild campers are determined to do that to Alexander Darwall.

There is no right to roam over 92% of the land of England and to do so, is considered trespass. In April 1932, hundreds of ramblers, both men and women, defied the law to walk over hills and moorland in the Peak District of Hayfield and Kinder Scout, which was owned by the Duke of Devonshire. The ramblers were often beaten up by the Dukes gamekeepers, wielding sticks. Some were arrested and later imprisoned. This mass trespass won ramblers roaming rights and led to the formation of the Peak District National Park in 1951.The legal case brought by Darwall, is likely to revive the spirit of Kinder Scout. 

One person who shouldn't have any difficulty wild camping on Dartmoor, is Prince William. As the Duke of Cornwall, a title he inherited on the death of the late Queen, he acquired ownership of one third of Dartmoor National Park after inheriting the £1bn Duchy of Cornwall estate. The private estate of the Duchy of Cornwall, was set up by the feudal monarch Edward III in 1337, to provide financial independence for his son and heir. The heir to the British throne, still benefits from this feudal arrangement to this day. On the vexatious issue of wild camping on Dartmoor, the Prince has hitherto remained silent.