Latest news with #CountrysideandRightsofWayAct2000
Irish Times
02-05-2025
- Irish Times
In Ireland, we are obsessed with the land – owning it, not roaming it
'This land is your land, this land is my land ... this land was made for you and me.' When Woodie Guthrie penned these words in 1944, he was revising a song he had originally written in 1940 with the title God Blessed America. The updated version became an unlikely anthem, evoking redwood forests, golden valleys and wheat fields waving, but its original intent was defiance. As American writer Colin Fleming suggested, it is 'a paean to the country he loved and a critical broadside launched on behalf of all those – dreamers, migrant workers, poets, or anyone else – who ever felt that their vision of America had been compromised'. The song entered the national consciousness and 'was there to be used by people who had use for it'. What constitutes a reasonable right to roam? The Keep Ireland Open campaign has in the past given the example of the UK's Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 as a way forward Should the same apply to the land? As summer begins, those in Ireland demanding the right to freely roam the countryside might be tempted to adapt Guthrie's anthem, such is the depth of feeling that exists about restrictions on their movement, the subject of recent correspondence in this news organisation. READ MORE But what constitutes a reasonable right to roam? The Keep Ireland Open campaign has in the past given the example of the UK's Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 as a way forward: England and Wales have 225,000km of public rights of way, the result of civic defiance and mass trespass in 1932 in Derbyshire that ultimately led to the establishment of national parks. There are no such freedoms in Ireland. The national obsession with land does not extend sufficiently to embracing walkers and ramblers who have no law to champion them; instead, the legal rights rest with landowners. Many of these have accommodated walkers, but too many desired spots are closed off. Our potential richness for walkers is obvious and, in contrast to the Irish situation, access in some other European countries is legally assured. It is also a tourist issue: more than 20 years ago, Bord Fáilte 's Strategic Plan for Walking (2003-2006) emphasised 'access is the most critical issue' for those developing walking tourism 'and needs to be solved post haste'. Some recreational users have done their cause no favours, with their litter, recklessness and uncontrolled dogs David Herman, author of various guidebooks about Irish mountains, noted that at the same time, the Irish Farmers' Association insisted 'the property rights of farmers should not be diminished by the conferring of any general rights of access to farmland to the public'. That missed the point that the desire is not usually for access to general farmland but through rough grazing land. Some recreational users have done their cause no favours, with their litter, recklessness and uncontrolled dogs. There are also occupiers' liability complications, and the issue of protecting habitats, but surely careful State management of more designated public access areas would help with this? When advocating greater access in 2003, Herman suggested 'landowners will be asked to concede very little; freedom to roam over little more than the 7 per cent most unproductive land in the country plus limited rights of way in the lowlands'. Ten years later, Louise Burns, an expert in regional and urban planning, noted that in England, Wales, Scotland, Denmark, Germany and New Zealand, legislation granted rights to walk private land, and highlighted the Swedish concept of Allemansrätten (everyone's right to roam): 'all of these jurisdictions place a value on the rights of non-landowners to use private land for recreational purposes', in contrast to the lack of an Irish statutory framework. Yet it must also be acknowledged that the Scandinavian spirit of 'respect for the environment and individual responsibility' is not as embedded elsewhere. Regarding access, Scottish journalist Patrick Galbraith insists it is some of the aristocratic estates that are most facilitating and that the right to roam slogan has created caricatures Nor is there a cosy consensus about access in the UK. Scottish journalist Patrick Galbraith, author of the recent book Uncommon Ground, scorns owners of out-of-control dogs and right-to-roam trespassers disturbing traps designed to protect some endangered species: 'Myopic ecoradicals are playing God.' Regarding access, he insists it is some of the aristocratic estates that are most facilitating and that the right to roam slogan has created caricatures, diverting attention from those most focused on attending nature. Nonetheless, there is insufficient balance in Ireland between what is dictated by landowners and what is in the public interest when it comes to access. It is a far cry from the situation William Bulfin found himself in when preparing his celebrated book Rambles in Éirinn (1907). On his bicycle tour, he could embrace 'long, winding, shallow vales, fine tracts of tilled land, green pastures, too, and shady groves and woods; and all along the eastern and southern horizon stand the blue peaks of the guardian mountains'. Bulfin was a stalwart of the cultural nationalist movement that emphasised access to what is ours. We do this well in some areas – access to museums and many heritage sites – but not when it comes to accessing our countryside.
The Guardian
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Walking the Pennine Way put everything into perspective for me, including my right to be here
Dear Pennine Way: I'd like to wish you a happy 60th birthday. Many thousands have trodden along you, and so have I. You've brought us blisters but also beautiful views, buoyed spirits and a renewed sense of belonging. I got the idea to walk the Pennine Way – which on 24 April turns 60 – after being racially abused on a TransPennine train journey. A man asked me if I had a British passport, threatened to set me on fire and told me to go back to where I'm from. The latter hit a nerve: I am from the North of England and proud of it. One day I was looking at a map of that journey and saw the Pennine mountains rising up. I zoomed closer and saw a place called Hope, and I determined that I'd walk through the glorious place I'm from and try to channel hope throughout. Walking was transformative to my physical and mental health. I'd been suffering from anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder – racism and inequality affect mental health. Walking was ameliorative as I focused my attention on the wonders of wildlife, burned away stress by the River Ribble and felt my heart beat louder as I hiked on up through the Yorkshire Dales, stopping to marvel at the view from Pen-y-ghent as the clouds began to clear. I walked along the 'backbone' of the country – as the Pennines are known due to their astonishing limestone cliff formations – as a way of showing backbone myself: I won't let racial abuse stop me adventuring in a country where I belong. My journey was inspired by the Manchester Ramblers from my home town, who walked against exclusion in the Kinder Scout mass trespass – which celebrates its 93rd anniversary also on 24 April. Their walk helped improve access to the countryside, paving the way for the formation of the Peak District (the country's first national park), the Pennine Way, and the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. The Manchester Ramblers – immortalised in Ewan MacColl's song – showed that they could help walk the world to a better future. It's important to ensure that their hard-won freedoms aren't eroded: England's national parks are imperilled due to budget cuts. It's vital we speak up for their existence, for their belonging here. There were moments when I thought I couldn't go on – not least after almost toppling off Malham Cove – but what fuelled my footsteps, alongside the extraordinary landscape, was a burning sense of defiance. In Settle in the Yorkshire Dales, I saw a plaque commemorating the journey of Alfred Wainwright, who walked the Way in 1938 and wrote A Pennine Journey, published in 1986. Reading it was enraging on account of the misogynistic stereotypes – Wainwright writes about 'the wild joys of boyhood' and comments: 'I've wondered many a time: have the ladies the same capacity for enthusiasm? … I have not yet witnessed genuine enthusiasm in one of them; often I have seen a pretence of it, but the divine spark was missing.' I may be missing the 'divine spark', but my enthusiasm powered me on over mountains, valleys and considerable obstacles, all the way to the sadly now felled Sycamore Gap tree at Hadrian's Wall. Toxic prejudices still persist about who belongs here and who is capable. My book, titled I Belong Here, is a chronicle of my Pennine journey and also a clarion call for rightful belonging in the face of hostile and persistent exclusion of minorities from societal power structures, and media, and publishing and literary landscapes. Ironically one agent advised me to take out the word 'Pennines', because 'the book won't sell as no one cares about the north'. I was also told that someone like me couldn't be a travel and nature writer – the subtext being that I was not white and/or male so I did not fit with the 'lone enraptured male' profile prevalent in this genre (Wainwright might be turning in his grave to know I was shortlisted for a nature-writing prize named after him. My PE teacher would be surprised too. As we celebrate this great walking path, it's worth remembering how far there still is to go for all to be safe and free and welcome while walking through the world. In England, 92% of the land is not covered by the right to roam, contrasting with Scotland, where the public has access to walk through most of it as long as they do so responsibly. England's land is still entrenched in centuries-old feudal inequality. And as women walking, we face greater levels of harassment outdoors, the vulnerabilities heightened for a woman of colour with risk of racist harassment. Long-distance hiking is a lesson in stoicism in the face of obstacles. It's an apt metaphor for the journey through life – little wonder that the walk has been a literary trope for centuries. But rather than approaching the Way as a competitive sport, I did it my way, as it were; I didn't care about finishing fastest but wanted to savour each step instead. So happy birthday, dear Pennine Way. Five years on from my epic journey, I'm trying to keep walking a hopeful path. I hope if anyone who's reading this today (or in 60 years), feels stuck or lost in life, or crushed by discrimination, that you don't give up, that you keep on going; that you believe you belong here, because you do. I hope you'll keep going for the view along the way as well as from the top of the mountain. Anita Sethi is the author of I Belong Here: A Journey Along the Backbone of Britain and is featured in the new exhibition A Trail of Inspiration: the Pennine Way at 60
BBC News
11-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Cornish campaigners back calls for greater walking freedom
Campaigners have welcomed calls for a review of the law on where people are allowed to walk in the Liberal Democrat MP for Tiverton and Minehead Rachel Gilmour wrote to the government asking for it to look into the benefits of extending the right to said it would improve people's physical and mental health - but farmers have raised concerns about the impact on their land and the said it wanted to increase access to nature in a responsible fashion and would consider the best way to achieve that. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 sets out the existing space where people are free to roam - but much woodland and farmland is said in 2023 that it wanted to extend the current provision - but stepped back from that commitment after farmers raised in a written question to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, Rachel Gilmour asked "if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the right to roam in England". 'Access islands' Holly Astle, from campaign group Right to Roam Kernow, said just 3% of countryside in Cornwall was currently accessible."A lot of that is the moors or south west coastal path - leaving very little access for the rest of Cornwall," she conceded walkers would have to show responsibility with any extra freedom - but said the current rules penalised them."We've got these things called 'access islands' where we're supposedly allowed to access them but they're surrounded by private land. So people can't even get to the places they're allowed to," she explained. Andrew Williams, from the South West Country, Land, and Business Association which represents the interests of people who own, farm and manage the land, said the group was not opposed to an said: "We've got to have a common sense approach that means people can do this responsibly and we don't have to worry about the flora, fauna, and ecosystems."We know where the right and the wrong places are to go - so work with us." In response to Gilmour's question, Nature Minister Mary Creagh insisted: "The government committed in its manifesto to improving responsible access to nature."The department is currently assessing the best way to deliver this, and further information will be made available in due course."
