It could have been a very different vibe on Dartmoor, when hundreds of outdoor access campaigners and outdoor enthusiasts gathered around the granite rocks of Haytor to rally, rejoice and celebrate the fact that wild camping was still legal – at least in one tiny sliver of the country.
If the right to wild camp on Dartmoor had been removed by the courts last week, then the atmosphere would have been one of anger, upset and dark despair. There would have been a healthy dose of defiance, too – and it’s likely more people would have felt the need to be there, in a display of resistance like the one back in January 2023, when thousands of protesters marched across the moor, united in grief and utter disbelief that one wealthy landowner seemed able to remove the right of hikers, bikers, bird-watchers, star gazers, families, and youth groups to do something as simple and inoffensive as spend the night out in the open.
