The public have a right to walk or ride a horse on the commons areas of Dartmoor National Park under section 10 of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985, but this does not extend to a right to camp overnight without the landowner’s consent, the court has declared in Darwall and another v Dartmoor National Park Authority [2023] EWHC 35 (Ch); [2023] PLSCS 11.
The Dartmoor National Park in Devon was designated as such in 1951 under section 5 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. Within it, the Dartmoor Commons are areas of unenclosed moorland which are privately owned but on which other locals have the right to put their livestock. The commons comprise 37% of the National Park.
The claimants 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.
The defendant was the National Park Authority for Dartmoor, having taken the function over from Devon County Council. In 1989, the council promulgated bylaws under the 1985 and 1949 Acts prohibiting camping on specified areas and restricting it to permitted areas. In autumn 2021, the defendant consulted the public on proposed amendments to the bylaws. The claimants asserted that the right of access granted under section 10 of the 1985 Act did not extend to a right to camp or wild camp. The defendant disagreed and the claimants sought a declaration to that effect.
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. The defendant argued that wild camping was part of the open-air recreation for the purpose of which access was being provided or that wild camping without permission was an implied right ancillary to the right of access.
Prior to the 1985 Act there was no legal right to access or to roam on Dartmoor or the commons. A right to roam conferred by section 193 of the Law of Property Act 1925 applied only to metropolitan commons and prohibited camping. The 1949 Act drew a clear distinction between the enjoyment of opportunities for open-air recreation – having a picnic, walking a dog or observing wildlife, all of which could be said to be ancillary to the right to roam – and facilities for that enjoyment, which included camping. Section 60 of the 1949 Act granted rights of access to the National Parks, but only where an access agreement with the landowner was in force.
In the court’s view, the meaning of section 10 of the 1985 Act was clear and unambiguous: it conferred a right to roam on the commons which did not include – whether as a matter of construction or of necessary implication – a right to wild camp without permission. There was no local custom of camping which had the force of law despite section 10.
Louise Clark is a property law consultant and mediator
