Walking and the Right to Roam in England

Free access to the natural world is a human right. We are often excluded from acres of open spaces, simply because of ancient ownership laws, which fail to recognise the importance that nature has on human wellbeing.

Time and time again, we are being denied direct access by rich land owners. Take the case of the right to wild camp in England having been lost in Dartmoor. This unsettling ruling now means that there is now no legal right to wild camp anywhere in England or Wales.

Rather than it becoming easier, nature is becoming harder to access. Especially for those who aren’t able to access these often remote locations and often feel unwelcome in these spaces. By making it difficult for people to access nature; our connection with nature decreases, nature’s value declines and we lose out in SO MANY ways.

So here at Go Jauntly we support the Right to Roam. There’s no human wellbeing without nature’s wellbeing & for that we need as many people as possible to have a good relationship with the rest of nature. This means not only access to nature but enjoyable experiences in and around nature.

What is the Right to Roam?

The Right to Roam is the right to reconnect with nature. In England, you can access some land without having to use paths. This land is known as ‘access land’ or ‘open access land’. Your right to access this land is called the ‘right to roam’ or the ‘freedom to roam’.

The Countryside & Rights of Way (CRoW) Act, in 2000, gave people a partial Right to Roam over just 8% of England. Meaning we have had the legal right to walk over mountains, moors, commons and some downland, heath and coastlines, without the fear of trespassing.

But the majority of the English countryside is out of bounds for most of its population. 92% of the countryside and 97% of rivers are off limits to the public.

You can find out more about the Right to Roam campaign and their solutions to this crisis on their website.

We also have an episode of our Nature Bantz podcast with the wonderful Nick Hayes. Right to Roam campaigner and the illustrator and author of The Book of Trespass and Trespasser's Companion.