Dartmoor wild camping ruling ‘huge step backward’ as disappointed campaigners vow to 'go to war'

• Watch Bob Cruwys' report on the legal challenge brought over wild camping in Dartmoor National Park

A High Court ruling that people do not have a right to wild camp in Dartmoor National Park without landowners’ permission has been called a “huge step backwards”, as disappointed campaigners vowed to “go to war” and challenge the decision.

Farmers Alexander and Diana Darwall brought a successful legal challenge over wild camping, claiming some campers cause problems to livestock and the environment.

Mr and Mrs Darwall, who keep cattle on Stall Moor, which forms part of their more-than 3,450-acre estate in the southern part of Dartmoor, secured a finding from a judge that a 1985 law that regulates access to moorland does not provide a right to wild camp.

The Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA), which defended the High Court claim, said it was “really disappointed” by Sir Julian Flaux’s ruling and would be considering whether to appeal.

A spokesperson for The Ramblers Association, a walking charity, said: “This decision is a huge step backwards for the right of everyone to access nature.

It said it supported the “long-established precedent” of wild camping on Dartmoor, adding it would fight to “defend our rights of access & overturn this result”.

The Right to Roam campaign tweeted that the judge’s ruling was “an absolute outrage”.

It said it was launching “a ferocious campaign to fight for our right to sleep under the stars” and called for people to join a march on Mr Darwall’s land later this month.

Emma Linford, an outdoor education professional with 20 years' experience, and part of The Stars are for Everyone campaign, said she felt “rage about the rights of privilege and entitlement of how one person can remove such an important right for so many”.

Ms Linford, who has led skills training on Dartmoor, added: “Wild camping is not an occupation, it is transitory, it is recreation.

"Recreation that connects, inspires, develops rounded human beings.”

The Dartmoor Preservation Association, an independent organisation interested in the moor’s ecology, said on Twitter that the judgment was “a great let-down for all who love Dartmoor”.

It added: “This is just the latest in a historical assault on public rights of access to the countryside – at a time when we desperately need more, not less time in nature.”

On Twitter, MP Alex Sobel, Labour’s shadow minister for environment, said: “Our National Parks should be open to all and access to Dartmoor is integral to that.

“Labour will expand the right to roam as part of our programme for Government.

“Our natural spaces are here for us all to share for biodiversity, well-being and equity.”

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