The UK Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by bird shooters Alexander and Diana Darwall and upheld the right to wild camp on Dartmoor. The victory comes after a years long fight for the right to roam.
Hedge fund manager Alexander Darwall first embarked on a legal battle against Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) in 2022. The Darwalls wanted to stop people from wild camping on their 4,000-acre Blatchford Estate on Stall Moor near Cornwood. Darwall’s lawyer says the case was motivated by “concerns about the damage that wild camping can cause”, but we would argue that in fact it has more to do with protecting the profits from the Estate’s lucrative shooting business.
People don’t generally have a right to wild camp in most of the UK (although many do with no problems!). Devon’s Dartmoor National Park is an exception, where wild camping has been protected since 1985 by the Dartmoor Commons Act.
The High Court initially ruled in favour of Darwall’s case. Campaigners appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled in their favour in July 2023. This week’s rejection of the landlords’ subsequent appeal marks a major victory in a years long struggle.
Right to Roam campaigners have held several thousands strong marches on the Blatchford Estate, some of which were attended by Protect the Wild (PtW). PtW’s Eliza Egret wrote in 2023:
“Darwall isn’t the only estate owner who claims to want to keep the public off his land for the greater good. Many estates use barbed-wire fences and ‘PRIVATE’ signs to prevent us from roaming the countryside. But as Protect The Wild has previously reported, it is land owners who trash the land and abuse the pheasants they’re rearing. In May 2022 we reported that a mass grave of pheasants was found by Right to Roam campaigners on the Duke of Somerset’s land. A number of blood-stained pheasant carcasses, tangled up with old wire fencing and other rubbish, were found in a large pit.
Darwall’s lawyers say that his attempt to stop wild camping came from a feeling of stewardship for the land. But Kim Turner – a right to roam campaigner and participant in the 2023 mass trespass on Blatchford – explained to Egret that the custodians of the land have always been working-class people, not elite landowners like Darwall. She explained why she participated in the mass trespass at Blatchford Estate in 2023:
“Dartmoor called and we answered. This was the physical embodiment of our collective love for Dartmoor, for hiking, for being in nature & of course, for our right to wild camp. Contrary to the age-worn, neo-feudal arguments of wealthy landowners, we are the folk who love the land. We respect it. We marvel at it, in it. Nature nurtures.”
Kim continued, remembering the moment when protesters reached the Darwalls’ land:
“Our shared response to this modern enclosure flowed up onto Stall Moor, where our hearts beat as one in the biggest land rights protest most of us have witnessed.”
As thousands of people collectively exercised their right to roam across his Estate, Darwall employed private security to guard the entrances to his lavish home.
Pay-to-shoot
Blatchford is one of several neighbouring Dartmoor estates whose owners make money out of pay-to-shoot tourism. The Countryside Alliance in a (now private) post sings Blatchford’s praises as a destination for shooting birds, wild roe and fallow deer.
Cornwood Shoots, which operates on Blatchford Estates, advertises:
“We offer driven days from 250 up to 400 birds. Double guns can be arranged. We normally do 4-6 drives in a day but Back to Back days can be offered, providing around 250 birds per day. We can also arrange double days with our neighbouring shoots…
Shooting doesn’t get much better than this”
In our opinion, the Darwall’s case against wild camping was never really about his stated concerns for the land, or about wild fires. Instead it had everything to do with restricting public access in order to protect the lucrative shooting business on the Estate.
An ecologically destructive bloodsport
Darwall has argued – like other wealthy landowners – that he is acting to protect the land. The reality couldn’t be further from the truth. Over 50 million pheasants and 11 million partridges are released for shooting every year. Most of them are bred for the purpose in inhumane factory farm conditions. An estimated 30% of the birds released are shot. The shooting industry’s use of pheasants is, in reality, destructive for the environment.
Protect the Wild’s Charlie Moores has stated that:
“Common pheasants are omnivores – meaning they will eat pretty much everything. Releasing millions of birds with large appetites (these are relatively large birds, remember) into an already depleted landscape is ecologically nonsensical. Common pheasants have been recorded catching scarce reptiles like slow worms and amphibians, and the birds that survive the early winter will take food needed by native seed-eating species during what is called the ‘hungry gap’ when everything is in short supply and wild birds are beginning to enter the breeding season.”
In fact, in 2020 Defra finally added the common pheasant to Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, which lists species that cause ecological, environmental or socio-economic harm.
So claiming to care about the land on one hand and wanting to protect it from wild campers, while making money from flooding Dartmoor with thousands of non-native birds on the other makes no sense. What does make a lot of sense is that Darwall cares a lot about profits.
Judges ruling
Rejecting Darwall’s appeal, the Supreme Court judges’ ruling highlighted the section of the 1985 Dartmoor Commons Act that says that “the public shall have a right of access to the commons on foot and horseback for the purpose of open-air recreation”. The Supreme Court judges emphasised that these statements were “open-ended and unqualified” and that they “naturally” include wild camping. The judges also pointed out that the 1949 National Parks Act restricted the killing of animals in the National Park, but did not restrict camping.
Kevin Bishop of DNPA told the BBC:
“This is a landmark judgment not just for Dartmoor National Park but for people who have long campaigned for access rights.
The judgement reaffirms our long-held belief for the public’s right to backpack camp on certain commons and, importantly, our role in regulating and managing that access.”
He added that we all have the responsibility “to make sure” we “tread lightly and leave no trace.”
The DNPA’s case was supported by the Open Spaces Society. They told the BBC that they were happy with the decision and would be pushing for wild camping to be legally protected across Wales and England.
Victory for the right to camp!
The Right to Roam campaign has been central to the movement to protect wild camping and public access on Dartmoor.
We spoke to Nadia Shaikh, a spokesperson for the campaign. She highlighted that the fact that Darwall’s case was initially successful in the High Court shows the unbridled power that the elite hold in the UK. Nadia called for the government to legislate to protect people’s access to the land. She told us:
“The verdict is a relief, however its vital to remember that Dartmoor is still the only place in England and Wales where the public can wild camp and lawfully experience the depth of connection to nature that comes with spending an extended time outdoors and sleeping under the stars.
This case demonstrates how one wealthy landowner was able to temporarily remove a right that belonged to everyone, a right that has allowed tens of thousands of people experience the magic of camping, exposes how England’s system of access is truly broken.To make sure our access to nature isn’t at the whim of landowners, the Labour government must now pass a new right to roam act to defend and extend the public’s rights to access nature in England. New legislation is needed to extend our right to responsibly spend time in nature beyond Dartmoor.”
A landmark victory for wildlife as well as people
Protect the Wild’s Rob Pownall emphasised that this is a victory for wildlife as well. He wrote:
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