Let’s make ‘a night under the stars’ a reality
Following the judgment of the Supreme Court in Darwall v Dartmoor National Park Authority, we are calling on English and Welsh governments to legalise wild (backpack) camping on all open country. The court found that the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 confers, on those entering on foot or horseback, a right to wild camp on the…
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Dartmoor camping: government must follow up supreme court victory
Welcoming the unanimous supreme court judgment, that there is a legal right to backpack camp on Dartmoor’s commons, we have called on the government to ensure that this, and other, access rights are extended nationwide. In a statement released as the court’s decision was announced today, the society’s general secretary, Kate Ashbrook, declared: ‘If Darwall…
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Dartmoor backpack-camping case is to go to Supreme Court
We are deeply dismayed that the Supreme Court has granted the Dartmoor landowners, Alexander and Diana Darwall, leave to appeal in the Dartmoor backpack-camping case. The society intervened in support of the Dartmoor National Park Authority in the Court of Appeal, and it was delighted when that court ruled that the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 gave…
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Dartmoor backpack camping: we join case in court of appeal
Update July 2023: the appeal was heard on July 18 2023. A summary and link to watch can be found here. Update June 2023: the society has submitted to the court a witness statement, made by case officer Hugh Craddock, and the society’s skeleton argument, courtesy of Richard Honey KC, Ned Westaway and Esther Drabkin-Reiter,…
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No backtrack on backpack camping on Dartmoor commons
We are delighted that the Dartmoor National Park Authority has agreed unanimously to seek leave to appeal against the High Court judgment of 13 January; this ruled that there is no right to wild (backpack) camping on the Dartmoor commons. Says Kate Ashbrook, our general secretary: ‘We have always understood that the Dartmoor Commons Act…
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