Right to Roam.

youtube!

As a frequent visitor to the UK I notice there are literally thousands upon thousands of what they call "public footpaths" which can take you deep into the countryside, it got me thinking why do we not have this Right to Roam in our own countryside?
In the UK as long as you close the gate behind you and dont litter or light fires etc it is your right to ramblw wherever you please,infact there are even some quirky bylaws which enable you to walk through the threshold of a private house should they be situated on a public land!
Obviously I dont want to walk through someone elses house but it really is pathethic that a massive percentage of the stunning Irsh countryside is closed for all intents and purposes to the average walker.

my question is why this is the case,can we not have proper wild access to our own country? Sorry if this is the wrong forum.

coylemj

youtube! wrote: »

In the UK as long as you close the gate behind you and dont litter or light fires etc it is your right to ramble wherever you please

I doubt very much that that is the case. What you are saying is that you can freely walk across any land that you choose to across the whole of the UK. Why are there such things as parks if you are effectively saying that the whole country is one big public park?

In this country the ownership of private property carries with it the right to the enjoyment of that property and of one the 'enjoyments' that goes with ownership of property is the right to privacy which means that unless there is a right of way over the property, you can stop people from traipsing all over your land.

nuac

Public rights of way are along defined footpaths or roads etc.

afaik no general right to roam over somebody's property - nor should there be.
owners of e.g. mountain commonage may not object to people walking across the commonage, off paths. However bogfires or other damage may occur, or letting dogs annoy sheep etc may discourage owners of commonage from allowing this.

aacs

Whatever... The rules can be relaxed a bit with specific restrictions for the community welfare.

youtube!

I probably didnt explain myself properly, but I think in general a lot more of the land is open to walkers in the UK compared to here, would you agree? What exactly is "the right to roam" as a law if it is not about public access to private lands?

coylemj

I think you need to distinguish 'right to roam' as a campaign aspiration from 'right to roam' as a legal right, the latter does not exist in the way you claim it does in your original post....

youtube! wrote: »

In the UK as long as you close the gate behind you and dont litter or light fires etc it is your right to ramblw wherever you please

The 'right to roam' is something the Ramblers' Association in the UK has long campaigned for and they made some progress in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 but this legislation did not give unfettered access to anyone to march across some else's land.

Victor

The difference is that in Britain (Scotland is different from E&W), there are large number of footpaths and bridleways, where it is legal to walk or bring a horse, but not to bring a vehicle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_way_in_Scotland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rights_of_way_in_England_and_Wales

Even when Ireland was in the UK, different laws applied and the same number of footpaths were never created and bridleways never existed.

youtube!

Thanks for the links Victor,one thing that struck me while reading it is that lots of these public footpaths are infact many years in existence,in some cases hundreds of yrs old.
I do now understand the legalities of the situation and that a right to roam doesnt give total unhindered access to one and all, it is though in my view a great pity that we dont have lots of similar bridleways and foothpaths in Ireland,though there are actually lots of them in the 6 counties.

Victor

Surrey in south/southwest London (Heathrow-Guildford-Gatwick, area 1,663 km2 (642 sq mi), population 1,109,700) has approximaltey 5,000km (3,000 miles) of highway, but a further:
* 2,229 km (1385 miles) of public footpaths which you have the right to use on foot only
* 1,095 km (680 miles) of public bridleways which you have the right to use on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle (cyclists should give way to walkers and riders)
* 0.7 km (0.4 miles) of restricted byways which you have the right to use on foot, on horseback or on/in any vehicle which is not mechanically propelled (e.g. a bicycle, horse drawn vehicles etc).
* 123 km (76 miles) of byways open to all traffic (BOATs) which you can use on foot, on horseback and on or in any sort of vehicle

http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/sccwebsite/sccwspages.nsf/LookupWebPagesByTITLE_RTF/Footpaths+byways+and+bridleways?opendocument

For comaprison Dublin county (area 924Km2, population 1,270,000) has approximately 3700km (2,300 miles) of road. http://www.dlrcoco.ie/media/media,6362,en.pdf

golden virginia

As far as I know, you have the right to visit national monuments in ireland. ( prehistoric tombs and the like) Most of these are in private fields. Many are not marked by signs but are found in the ordinance survey maps and other sources.
From experience if there is a path you are supposed to use it but in many cases there is no path and often there are offputting signs put up like ' beware of the bull' or " beware of hunting with guns" .

nuac

If the monument is under the care of the OPW there would be a defined pathway into it. If you just ascertain that it is a monument from checking OS map or memoir, and there is no pathway into it, tghen there may be no public right of way and you need the landowner's permission..

A sign such as "hunting with guns" should be reported to Gardai. Trespass is a civil wrong and does not justify the use of firearms. Gardai should consider applying to revoke the firearm licence of anyone making such threats.