Car park closures. Protecting the environment or reducing access?

Countryside car parks.

What do they mean to you?

  • The starting point for your favourite walk?
  • A lovely picnic spot?
  • A place to launch your kayak?
  • A means of exploring?
  • The start of an adventure?
  • A scenic coffee stop?
  • A place to overnight in your van?
  • Somewhere to play music and relax?
  • A location for litter and fly tipping?

Quite possible all of the above but it’s the bottom three that are often given as reasons for closing car parks that have previously given so much pleasure. I can vouch for the issues near some of the closures but have also seen evidence that closures don’t always deal with the problems, they often transfer them somewhere else.

Somewhere that perhaps won’t affect a particular land owner.

Car park closures have significant impact

If Dartmoor National Park is anything to go by, car park closures are gathering pace. Locked gates and giant stones are appearing all over the place.

And they’re restricting our access to the few areas of England where we are allowed to freely wander.

Continue reading “Car park closures. Protecting the environment or reducing access?”

Wild camping on Dartmoor. A privilege worth protecting. And a poem.

Update on Dartmoor wild camping – January 23rd 2023

The picture for wild camping on Dartmoor has changed following a well-publicised High Court decision. This is a developing and controversial situation. Thanks to efforts by the Dartmoor Commons Owners’ Association and Dartmoor National Park Authority, there are currently some areas on Dartmoor where you are still permitted to backpack/wild camp. You can read the news release from Dartmoor National Park Authority here. Please find below a summary.
  • You can currently wild camp on a reduced area of Dartmoor
  • You can view the new Dartmoor wild camping map here
  • If you camp within this area, you don’t need to seek the landowner’s permission
  • If you camp within this area, you don’t need to make an individual payment
  • This is a permissive agreement, which means it can be removed
  • Which means it’s more important than ever to make sure you adopt a leave-no-trace approach
  • Large groups, barbecues and campfires on Dartmoor are still prohibited

Wild camping on Dartmoor

December 2022

‘For the purpose of outdoor recreation.’

Six small but supremely important words.

Six words that are part of s.10(1) of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985.

Six words that have given generations freedom.

Six words that are being tested next week in the High Court.

Continue reading “Wild camping on Dartmoor. A privilege worth protecting. And a poem.”

What did you do on New Year’s Eve? I went wild camping on Dartmoor

Dartmoor wild camping – update January 2023

The picture for wild camping on Dartmoor has changed following a well-publicised High Court decision. This is a developing and controversial situation. Thanks to efforts by the Dartmoor Commons Owners’ Association and Dartmoor National Park Authority, there are currently some areas on Dartmoor where you are still permitted to backpack/wild camp. You can read the news release from Dartmoor National Park Authority here. Please find below a summary.
  • You can currently wild camp on a reduced area of Dartmoor
  • You can view the new Dartmoor wild camping map here
  • If you camp within this area, you don’t need to seek the landowner’s permission
  • If you camp within this area, you don’t need to make an individual payment
  • This is a permissive agreement, which means it can be removed
  • Which means it’s more important than ever to make sure you adopt a leave-no-trace approach
  • Large groups, barbecues and campfires on Dartmoor are still prohibited

Dartmoor wild camping New Year’s Eve

December 2022

Leaving the comfort of a warm campervan to ‘sleep’ in a sloping, wind-bent tent might not seem like everybody’s idea of a New Year’s Eve party but, for Mr D and I, it was the perfect way to end a year, which hasn’t contained quite as many outdoor adventures as we would have liked it to.

Continue reading “What did you do on New Year’s Eve? I went wild camping on Dartmoor”