A judge’s ruling that people do not have the right to wild camp on Dartmoor without landowners’ permission “went too far”, campaigners have said in an appeal against the judgment.
The previous judgment, handed down in January, rests on the definition of “open air recreation” and whether sleeping outdoors can be considered a recreational activity.
The Dartmoor National Park Authority is challenging a High Court judgment that a nearly 40-year-old piece of legislation did not provide this right, despite arguments that wild camping was a long-held local custom.
The Darwalls family, who keep cattle on Stall Moor, which forms part of their 4,000-acre estate in the southern part of Dartmoor, won a finding from a judge in January that the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 did not provide a right to wild camp without the permission of the landowners.
