Section 10(1) of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 allows the public to engage in open-air recreation on the Dartmoor Commons, and this includes the right to wild camp provided that it is conducted in accordance with 1989 bylaws.
The Court of Appeal has overturned the lower court’s decision that section 10 of the 1985 Act prohibited the public from camping overnight without the landowner’s consent in Darwall and another v Dartmoor National Park Authority [2023] EWCA Civ 927; [2023] PLSCS 131.
The Dartmoor National Park was designated as such in 1951 under section 5 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, which granted the public a right to have access for open-air recreation to open country where there was an access agreement with the landowner. Prior to the 1985 Act, there was no legal right to access or to roam or wild camp on the Dartmoor Commons without such an access agreement. The right to roam conferred by section 193 of the Law of Property Act 1925 applied only to metropolitan commons and prohibited camping.
The Dartmoor Commons, comprising 37% of the National Park, are areas of unenclosed moorland which are privately owned but on which other locals have the right to put their livestock. The respondents owned Blanchford Manor, an estate on Dartmoor which included Stall Moor, an extensive area of open land in a remote section of the commons where they kept cattle, lambs and fallow deer. They had become concerned about the potential harm of wild camping or backpacking near Stall Moor.
Section 10 of the 1985 Act provides that the public shall have a right of access to the commons on foot and on horseback for the purpose of open-air recreation and shall not be considered trespassers provided they do no damage to walls, fences, hedges and gates. Bylaws made in 1989 restrict the use of any vehicle, including a caravan, or any structure other than a tent for camping to specified areas, and camping by tent to no more than two consecutive nights outside the specified areas. The specified areas did not include the respondents’ land.
The question for the court was the meaning of “open-air recreation” within section 10(1) of the 1985 Act. The lower court had decided that it conferred the right to roam but not to wild camp without permission. The Court of Appeal disagreed. A walker who lies down for a rest or who falls asleep, whether on the ground or in a tent, is present for the purpose of open-air recreation.
Louise Clark is a property law consultant and mediator
