The largest mass trespass in a generation will take place in Devon today. Hundreds of protesters belonging to the pressure-group Right to Roam will descend on Vixen Tor, a slightly sinister-looking granite outcrop on Dartmoor a few miles from Tavistock. Since 2003, access has been banned. But given that much of Dartmoor is already open to the public, why the stress on this fairly small part, which is not?
Those marching on Vixen Tor say the reason is simple: a small part of the high moor where hikers have the right to walk at will is inaccessible because it can only be reached across the Tor, which is privately owned and lacks any public rights of way across it. Demonstrators say that bureaucratic confusion has created a number of such ‘access islands’ in England, which you can theoretically roam over but cannot reach without technically trespassing on someone’s land.
Right to Roam are not a group of downtrodden factory hands asking the gentry for a weekend escape
The protesters have a point, but there is much more to this campaign than meets the eye.
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