As we reported back in January, a High Court judge ruling had effectively ended the right to roam, wild camp and bikepack in England and Wales after wealthy Dartmoor landowners, Alexander and Diana Darwall had won their High Court challenge against the right to wild camp without their permission in the Dartmoor National Park. The Darwall's lawyers had argued that wild campers and bikepackers on their land caused problems to livestock and the environment, and they successfully won a court declaration that banned members of the public from pitching tents on Dartmoor with their consent.
The Dartmoor National Park Authority had immediately planned to appeal the decision and with campaigners and right-to-roam groups backing their appeal with call-to-arms protests and mass trespass walks on Dartmoor. The outdoor community certainly wasn't going to accept the ban and it looked like a case set to rumble on for a long time.
