Independent, investigative, in the public interest  Upgrade to paid

NEWS

Dartmoor landowner seeks Supreme Court ruling to prevent wild camping

Alexander and Diana Darwell, owners of 4,000 acre Blachford Estate, aim to overturn appeal court ruling restoring access rights championed by Dartmoor National Park Authority and campaign group Open Spaces Society.

Leigh Curtis

A Dartmoor landowner is seeking to overturn a Court of Appeal ruling handed down earlier this year which restored the right to wild camp, following a January 2023 High Court ruling which removed that right.

The case, which will be heard at the Supreme Court next week, is being brought by Alexander Darwall and his wife Diana, owners of the 4,000 acre Blachford Estate.

The couple, who are the sixth largest landowners on Dartmoor, bought the estate in 2011. It extends from land just north of Ivybridge to the Duchy of Cornwall holding at the heart of the moor.

In January last year the Darwalls won a case against Dartmoor National Park Authority when their lawyers successfully argued that provision in the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 for public “right of access to the commons on foot and on horseback for the purpose of open-air recreation” excluded wild camping.

Following the ruling, thousands of people took part in a protest against the decision, walking from the village of Cornwood to Stall Moor, part of the Darwall’s land.

Six months later Dartmoor National Park Authority, an independent “freestanding local authority”, and campaign group Open Spaces Society won an appeal against the January ruling, restoring the right to wild camp.

Dartmoor is the only place in England where there is a right to camp in open countryside without permission from landowners. In Scotland people have been free to camp on most unenclosed land, whether publicly or privately owned, since 2003.

Wild camping on Dartmoor Wild camping on Dartmoor. Photo: Fern Leigh-Albert.

Campaigners say that, if successful, the case brought by Alexander Darwall, a hedge fund manager who has donated nearly £70,000 to the Conservative Party, UKIP and the Vote Leave campaign, would not only end wild camping on Dartmoor but also significantly set back the broader cause of public access to land and open spaces.

Frankie Gould of campaign group The Stars Are For Everyone, which is focussed on the right to wild camp on Dartmoor, said: “If Darwall wins his case, there will be no further opportunity for appeal.

“Wild camping rights will cease to exist in England, and the continued ability for individuals and groups to sleep under Dartmoor’s stars will be lost.”

Lewis Winks of Right to Roam, a campaign for legislation in England similar to the law that created new public land access rights in Scotland, said: “Restoring wild camping rights to this tiny patch of England is not enough”.

He added: “We’ve seen enough to know that it’s just a matter of time before another Darwall comes along to reduce, exclude and deny access to the places we love.”

Right to Roam says that the proportion of land on Dartmoor with rights to wild camp comprises just 0.2% of the land in England.

The campaign has also found that there are 2,500 areas of land where there is a right to roam but no legal right of access, requiring trespass to reach them.

Campaign rally at Haytor, Dartmoor Campaign rally at Haytor, Dartmoor. Photo: Fern Leigh-Albert.

Campaigners, including from Right to Roam and The Stars Are For Everyone, are to gather outside the Supreme Court in Parliament Square at 11am on Tuesday 8 October, the day of the hearing.

A campaign rally will also take place at Hound Tor, near Bovey Tracey, at 3pm on Sunday 6 October.

Conservation charity Dartmoor Preservation Association is running a crowdfunder to help Dartmoor National Park Authority meet the legal costs of the case, which it says could amount to £400,000.

Independent, investigative, in the public interest

Exeter Observer publishes the independent investigative journalism our local democracy needs.

It can do this because it is the city's only news organisation that doesn't have to answer to corporate advertisers, remote shareholders or those in power.

Instead, its not-for-profit public interest business model is simple.

It depends on readers like you to sustain our reporting by contributing a small amount each month.

Lots of people currently chip in like this, but it's not enough to cover our costs. We need more paying subscribers to keep publishing.

136 of the 300 readers we need have signed up so far. Help us reach our goal by joining them today.

Support our work from less than £2/week and get access to exclusive premium content and more.

Upgrade to paid

More stories
Illustrative view of proposed co-living blocks from Heavitree Road

Heavitree Road police station student accommodation and “co-living” scheme consultation extended

Developers revise application for full planning permission for 813-bed seven-block complex submitted in May as similar proposals proliferate across city centre.

Boneyard arcade games

Unique retro games arcade to create new Sidwell Street venue after long search

Boneyard arcade seeking permission to change use of empty Brighthouse retail unit after making way for “co-living” block at previous Red Lion Lane location.

Proposed revised Mary Arches Bartholomew Street East co-living block elevation

Mary Arches “co-living” developer resists “miniscule” room size criticisms as design revisions prompt further consultation

Changes include increased building footprints and removal of twelve rooms to provide eleven communal kitchens – between residents of 297 studios – while gates obstruct pedestrian thoroughfare and site’s historic setting and significance essentially ignored.

September 2025 permitted replacement scheme west elevation

Council denies data and contrives criteria to dismiss community balance concerns in third King Billy student block approval

Exeter Observer analysis finds more students living in city centre than residents as council bid to include PBSA in housing delivery figures weakens local planning policy – but does not remove it from decision-making altogether.

, updated

Grace Road Fields in March

Botched consultation restarted on sale of 8.5 acres of Riverside Valley Park green space

Council land disposal to include rights to lay underground distribution pipework across River Exe floodplain following “low-to-zero carbon” Grace Road Fields heat plant planning approval in face of Environment Agency sequential test concerns.

On Our Radar
Jo Eades

FRIDAY 31 OCTOBER 2025

Spork! Dead Poets Slam 2025

Halloween spoken-word special featuring Jo Eades and Samuel L. Cohen with a £100 cash prize poetry slam.

EXETER PHOENIX

Carmen with rose graphic

SATURDAY 8 & SATURDAY 22 NOVEMBER 2025

Carmen

Exeter Opera Group performs Bizet’s tale of a free-spirited woman and her passionate and destructive love affair with a soldier.

EXETER CASTLE

Exeter Philharmonic Choir

SATURDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2025

The Weather Book

Exeter Philharmonic Choir performs a new weather-inspired work plus pieces by Brahms, Poulenc and Ralph Vaughan Williams.

EXETER CATHEDRAL