Public does have right to wild camp on Dartmoor, Supreme Court rules | UK News

The public has the right to wild camp on Dartmoor, the Supreme Court has ruled.

Five judges unanimously dismissed a legal challenge brought by landowners Alexander and Diana Darwall following a Court of Appeal ruling that said the law allows people to wild camp on the Dartmoor Commons in Devon.

Lawyers for the couple told the UK’s highest court that some campers cause problems to livestock and the environment on Stall Moor, which is part of Mr and Mrs Darwall’s 3,450-acre estate in the south of the national park.

Dartmoor became the only place in England where wild camping is allowed without permission from landowners following a piece of legislation in 1985, under which “open-air recreation” is permitted if one enters the common on foot or horseback.

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

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