Thanks to a decision in the Court of Appeal on Monday, 31 July, wild camping has been made legal once again in England – albeit just in one tiny corner of the country. You can now pitch your tent or roll out your sleeping bag and spend a night under the stars on certain parts of Dartmoor without the threat of a landlord, gamekeeper, ranger or police officer asking you to move on.
But, largely due to the reaction of the outdoor community when this right (limited and localised such as it is) was temporarily removed by a legal judgment in January, a massive amount of momentum is now growing behind a push for much better access to the countryside to be granted to the general public, including giving people the right to responsibly wild camp in wilderness areas and other national parks across the rest of England and Wales – rights that are already enjoyed in Scotland (external link). And this movement has widespread support, not just from influential outdoor organisations such as the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) but various political parties in the UK.
