The high court ruling is an outrage when we are already banned from 92% of the country’s land
When I did the Ten Tors challenge at school in 2017, I would fight back tears with my teammates, anticipating the relief and joy we would feel at crossing the finish line after 45 miles of backpacking on Dartmoor. On Friday, different tears fell. Messages flooded my phone announcing that the right to wild camp on Dartmoor had been overturned in an astonishing defeat.
The now infamous high court case in London, instigated by the hedge fund manager Alexander Darwall, saw victory for landowners, who can now choose to grant (or not to grant) campers a quiet night under the stars. Now, there is nowhere to legally wild camp in England or Wales. The windswept fury of Dartmoor was the stage of its extinction.
Sophie Pavelle is a writer and science communicator
