The UK’s Supreme Court Just Ruled to Protect England’s Last Haven for Backpack Camping

Members of the public can continue to dispersed-camp in Dartmoor National Park after the UK’s Supreme Court sided with them in a dispute with a pair of wealthy landowners, elating advocates for outdoor access and bringing a three-year legal battle to a close.

Unlike in neighboring Scotland, backpackers in England have no blanket right to “wild camp” in national parks, which include large swaths of common land, privately-owned but unfenced areas where locals are allowed to graze livestock. For decades, Dartmoor was the exception, thanks to a 1985 law that granted a presumed right of access for hikers and other outdoor recreators and made the park a destination for trekking events like the Ten Tors Challenge. That changed in 2022, when Alexander Darwall, a hedge fund manager who bought the park’s 4,000-acre Blachford Estate in 2013, sued to block campers from his property. Alongside his wife, Diana, Darwall argued that the text of the law, which specifies that “the public shall have a right of access to the commons on foot and horseback for the purpose of open-air recreation,” did not explicitly permit camping. While the Darwalls won their initial case, the judgement was overturned on appeal in July 2023, setting up a showdown in the country’s highest court.

In its decision, the Supreme Court said that the right of recreational access the law protected was clearly meant to be “open-ended.” In response to the Darwalls’ argument that landowners should be able to ban campers to protect the environment, the court wrote that public regulation is “likely to be more effective in protecting the land than attempts by private persons to challenge such use through themselves having to confront people on their land and bring a claim in private law.”

The Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) and Open Spaces Society (OSS), which brought the appeal against the Darwalls, celebrated the judgement, with the DNPA posting on Facebook that the group was “delighted and relieved” at the decision and that it would “keep working closely with commoners, all landowners, local communities, and partners to make sure Dartmoor remains a place for everyone.” In a post on its site, the OSS’s general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, urged Parliament to go further, writing that “If Darwall v Dartmoor is to be a truly landmark decision, the government must act to ensure a right to sleep under the stars applies to all national parks and wild country.”

“Dartmoor remains one of only a handful of places in England where there is a right to backpack camping without the landowner’s permission,” Ashbrook wrote. ” We want to see that right extended, so that people can enjoy a night under the stars on all open country in England and Wales.”