Section 10(1) of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 confers a right of public access which includes wild camping provided that it is conducted in accordance with bylaws.
The Supreme Court has clarified this issue in Darwall & Another v Dartmoor National Park Authority [2025] UKSC 20.
Common land comprises 37% of the Dartmoor National Park. The appellants owned Blanchford Manor, an estate within the DNP, including Stall Moor, part of the commons, where they kept cattle, lamb and fallow deer. They were concerned about the potential harm of wild camping near Stall Moor.
Section 10 of the 1985 Act provides that subject to its provisions and compliance with all rules, regulations or bylaws, the public shall have a right of access to the commons on foot and on horseback for the purpose of open-air recreation and anyone who enters for that purpose shall not be treated as a trespasser, provided, they do no damage to walls, fences, hedges and gates. 1989 regulations restricted camping to tents and certain areas – not the appellants’ land – were prohibited. The appellants claimed that the right of access established by section 10(1) did not extend to a public right to camp.
The question for the court was the meaning of “open-air recreation”. The lower court had decided that it conferred the right to roam but not to wild camp without permission. The Court of Appeal decided that it conferred a right to engage in camping on the commons.
The Supreme Court considered the true meaning was clear without the need to refer to other aids of interpretation. There were several indications that camping by individuals who entered the commons on foot or on horseback was covered by section 10(1): camping was a form of open-air recreation; the primary restriction on the right of access was by regulation which did not prohibit camping in 1985. The words “on foot and on horseback” describe methods of access to the commons not a purpose.
This interpretation was supported by the legislative context. The DNP was created in 1951 under section 5 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. This granted the public a right to have access “for the purpose of open-air recreation” the ordinary meaning of which included camping. Before the 1985 Act there was no legal right to access, roam or wild camp on the commons without an access agreement from the relevant landowner. The right to roam under section 193 of the Law of Property Act 1925 applied only to metropolitan commons and specifically excluded camping.
Louise Clark is a property law consultant and mediator
