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, provided bylaws are followed.
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.
Mr and Mrs Darwell’s lawyers said the law only gives the public access on foot and horseback, “which naturally means walking and riding”.
The Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) fought back against the legal challenge, labelling the suggestion that erecting a tent could damage land and vegetation “absurd”.
Lords Sales and Stephens said in their judgment that the term of “open-air recreation” should be read widely and that it would make “no sense” if the public’s right of recreation was “limited” to only walking and riding as suggested by the landowners.
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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In January 2023, a High Court judge ruled that the 1985 law does not allow people to erect tents on the Dartmoor Commons without the landowners’ permission, but the decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal in July that year.
The Darwalls took the legal challenge to the Supreme Court, with their lawyer Timothy Morshead KC writing to the court last year that the couple was “not motivated by a desire to stop camping on Dartmoor”, but concerned about “the damage wild camping can cause (…) and the significant risk of fire associated with it”.
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