I never thought I’d be a wild camper

Wild camping is ‘a modish phrase meaning camping overnight in a place which is not a dedicated campsite’, according to Lord Justice Underhill in a Court of Appeal judgment in July – and isn’t it wonderful that there are still judges carrying on the fine judicial tradition of handling the colloquial as if were radioactive waste? The point at issue was whether wild camping came within the definition of ‘open-air recreation’ – which is legally protected on Dartmoor, even without the landowner’s permission, under the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 – or not.

A nice question of statutory interpretation with no real repercussions, as the landowners promised that they would (at least for the moment) grant that permission, which was resolved by the Master of the Rolls. The judges reasoning was that a walker who stopped for a rest was still taking part in open-air recreation, even if he fell asleep; it was an essential part of his recreation.