Dartmoor ‘wild camping’ Appeal Intervention

The Court of Appeal has upheld the right to ‘wild camp’ on Dartmoor, overturning the judgment of the High Court.  Prior to that, it granted leave to our client the Open Spaces Society to intervene in the case, in support of the Dartmoor National Park Authority, both in writing and orally. 

The principal issue in this case is whether section 10(1) of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 (“the 1985 Act”) confers on the public a right not only to walk or ride a horse on the commons but also to camp there overnight.

S.10(1) of the 1985 Act states: ‘subject to the provisions of this Act and compliance with all rules, regulations and byelaws relating to commons and for the time being in force, the public shall have a right of access to the commons on foot and on horseback for the purpose of open-air recreation…’.

For decades, this was interpreted as including the right to ‘wild camp’ (also referred to as ‘backpack-camping’).  However, the landowners of Stall Moor common, an extensive area of open land in a remote section of the Commons, challenged this interpretation. In the High Court, the Judge, Sir Julian Flaux, declared that section 10(1) of the 1985 Act, did not confer on the public any right to pitch tents or otherwise make camp overnight on Dartmoor Commons and that such camping required the landowner’s consent.  The judgement construed the right of public access narrowly, finding it was equivalent to a ‘right to roam’ but that other activities were essentially prohibited unless ‘ancillary’ to roaming.

Given the wider public importance of the Appeal, the Open Spaces Society, Britain’s oldest conservation charity, instructed Richard Buxton Solicitors to seek permission to intervene. Permission was granted in May 2023 with no costs risk to the Society. The hearing was on 18 July 2023.

The Court of Appeal accepted the arguments of the Dartmoor National Park Authority and the Open Spaces Society that the High Court reading was too narrow, holding that “Parliament’s intention was to confer a general right to engage in open-air recreation on the commons” subject only to specific restrictions.  In relation to wild camping, specifically, the Court of Appeal held that the Act gives “members of the public the right to rest or sleep on the Dartmoor Commons, whether by day or night and whether in a tent or otherwise.”

Richard Honey KC, Ned Westaway, Esther Drabkin-Reiter and Stephanie Bruce-Smith of Francis Taylor Building act as counsel for the Open Spaces Society.