Campers rejoice! You can now pitch up your tents on Dartmoor again

Whether you’re into the great outdoors or not, just having the choice to enjoy it feels like it should be a basic right. For a good long while, Dartmoor was the only place in England and Wales where people could legally camp without having to obtain permission from a landowner. But back in January, a high court ruling outlawed such practices. 

Now though, that ruling has been overturned. Campers can once again freely enjoy nights under the stars on Dartmoor’s moorlands. 

The original wild camping ban came about thanks to Alexander Darwall, a wealthy hedge fund manager who bought the 4000-acre Blachford estate in south Dartmoor in 2011. He claimed that campers were leaving the site worse off through littering, lighting fires, poaching fish and causing noise pollution. Darwall apparently said he wasn’t trying to end camping altogether but rather change the laws so that campers had to get permission first. 

Previously, camping was assumed to be allowed under the Dartmoor Commons Act, which states a right to ‘open air recreation’. But Darwall’s lawyers argued that camping did not fall under that category. They claimed that it did not count as an open-air recreation because it involves sleeping rather than a particular activity. 

However this week lawyers for the Dartmoor National Park Authority succeeded in their appeal against January’s decision, arguing that it hinged on a very narrow definition of open-air recreation. 

Lewis Winks, a campaigner with The Stars Are for Everyone, said: ‘Access to a night under the stars on one of the UK’s most iconic landscapes now does not rely on the whims of individual landowners but is owned by ordinary people. We hope this will now serve as a blueprint for other places to follow suit.’

So, it’s official. Dust off your sleeping bags, time to go enjoy Dartmoor’s beauty and camp to your heart’s content!