Public wild camping on Dartmoor is legal, Supreme Court rules

Campaigners and MPs have demanded more public freedom to wild camp across the UK after the Supreme Court ruled that the public has the right to camp on Dartmoor. Five justices unanimously ruled on Wednesday that the term "recreation" in the law governing the use of the national park in Devon - the only national park where wild camping is allowed - is used "without qualification as to the form which it should take".

Following the ruling, Guy Shrubsole, co-founder of campaign group Right to Roam, said he was "elated" and called for changes to the law around wild camping. He said: "What I think this case has also really highlighted is how unusual and odd it is that Dartmoor is the only place where there is a legal right to wild camp in England and Wales. Over in Scotland, over the border, there is a right to wild camp almost everywhere, and so that's why we are now really keen for the Government to take note of this, of a huge amount of public interest this case has stirred up, to see the public support for the right to wild camp and to extend the law.

"We want them to change the law now, so that actually people in England can enjoy the right to wild camp, the right to roam over much more of our beautiful countryside."

Two landowners, Alexander and Diana Darwall, had challenged a Court of Appeal ruling, which said the law allows the public to camp on the Dartmoor commons provided bylaws are followed, at the UK's highest court.

The couple said they were "disappointed" by the judgment, while the chief executive of the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA), which opposed the challenge, said he was "delighted and relieved".

Dartmoor National Park, designated in 1951, covers a 368-square-mile area which features "commons" - areas of unenclosed, privately owned moorland where locals can put livestock.

The case concerned the interpretation of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985, which says "the public shall have the right of access to the commons on foot and on horseback for the purpose of open-air recreation".

In January 2023, High Court judge Sir Julian Flaux ruled that the 1985 Act did not allow people to pitch tents overnight on the Dartmoor commons without landowners' permission.

But the Court of Appeal overturned the decision in July that year after a challenge by the DNPA, with three senior judges ruling that the law "confers on members of the public the right to rest or sleep on the Dartmoor commons, whether by day or night and whether in a tent or otherwise".