Wild camping: controversial Dartmoor National Park ban overturned in Court of Appeal challenge

The Court of Appeal has ruled that members of the public have the right to wild camp in Dartmoor National Park, overturning an earlier ruling that allowed a private land owner to remove people from his estate.

Wild camping had originally been protected by the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 - but in January a High Court judge ruled it did not give people the right to pitch tents overnight on Dartmoor Commons without landowners’ permission.

However on Monday (31 July), Sir Geoffrey Vos, Lord Justice Underhill and Lord Justice Newey granted an appeal overturning this, finding that the law “confers on 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” - as long as bylaws are followed.

Dartmoor National Park, designated in 1951, covers a 368-square mile area that features “commons” – areas of unenclosed privately owned moorland where locals can put livestock.

Until the High Court ruling, campers could access nearly 52,000 acres of common land across the national park and can stay overnight as long as they followed a code of conduct. Dartmoor was one of the last places in England and Wales where visitors had an assumed right to wild camp without gaining the permission of the landowner.

Millionaire hedge fund manager Alexander Darwall, who owns land in the park with his wife, brought the successful legal challenge against the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA), claiming some campers were causing problems to livestock and the environment.

After a two-day hearing in December 2022, High Court chancellor Sir Julian Flaux sided with Mr Darwall’s argument, that while the Dartmoor Commons Act conferred a “right to roam” it did not include “a right to wild camp without permission”.

His judgment was branded a “huge step backward” by campaigners who claimed there was a “long-established precedent” of wild camping in the national park in Devon, and earlier in July, the DNPA asked appeal judges to overturn the decision.

DNPA’s chief executive Kevin Bishop said the appeal ruling was “a re-affirmation of the right to backpack camp on Dartmoor, and secures that right for today and future generations”.

However, he added that it was "equally important" that those exercising that right recognise that they had a responsibility to help look after the National Park. "We want people from all parts of our society to enjoy Dartmoor responsibly and with respect to landowners, farmers and local communities."

Mr Bishop said: “Our sincere hope is that this judgment means we can now move forward, in partnership, with a focus on making sure Dartmoor remains a special place for all to enjoy.”

Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, which intervened in the case, said in a statement: “This is an excellent outcome, we are relieved that the judges ruled unanimously and conclusively that open-air recreation includes backpack camping on the commons.”

“Following this judgment, Dartmoor remains one of only a handful of places in England where there is a right to backpack camping without the landowner’s permission," she added. “We should like to see that right extended and we shall campaign with other organisations to achieve this.”