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We know that Britain's land ownership is unbalanced, but what about land access? Who can visit our green and pleasant spaces, who is making use of them and who is taking care of them? Much is made of open access in Scotland, but what is the reality of the policy in practice, and should England and Wales embrace it?
In January 2023 the largest land access demonstration since the 1930s took place on a bright wintery morning on Dartmoor. Those who spearheaded the protest want open access to every acre of rural Britain. They claim that access helps nature by allowing the public to hold landowners and farmers to account and they claim it will have no effect on wildlife. But where does the truth actually lie? Is access to the countryside quite as restricted as we are led to believe and are all of those farmers, conservationists and landowners who worry about public access simply misguided? Is it time that somebody put them right?
In Uncommon Ground, Patrick Galbraith takes us on an extraordinary tour of rural Britain, from the Western Isles to Dorset, and from the Norman Conquest to the present day, to uncover the truth. Along the way he meets salmon poachers, landowners, foxhunters, and activists calling for a total abolition of the right to own land. And he spends time with politicians, historians and conservationists, many of whom have mixed feelings about the contemporary access campaign. He also, in order to understand our deep-rooted spiritual connections with the land, heads out with naturists, travellers and magic mushroom pickers.
What Patrick finds is that the 128,000 miles of formal public footpaths and the 3.6 million acres of access land, give the public the right to visit vast swathes of England and Wales. If laid out in a straight line, our footpath system would be the equivalent of walking round the globe six times. He also discovers the reality of the Scottish situation, where a right to roam has been introduced and where almost-extinct birds like the capercaillie are suffering because of public access. There are also, he learns, immense problems in Scotland with wild camping.
His journey reveals that everyone involved in the countryside is clear that access to the land and nature is critical. But access is restricted by issues of diversity, a lack of knowledge and even our transport system, rather than people being locked out. This is a book that argues that what matters is how we engage with the land and demands more opportunities to do so, but it also calls for us to do so in balance with nature, rather than misguidedly throwing open every acre to the detriment of the natural world.
Patrick Galbraith grew up in Scotland. His writing has appeared in The Observer, The Spectator, The Times, and The Telegraph. He was editor of Shooting Times for seven years. He is now a columnist for Country Life and The Critic. Currently, he works as a commissioning editor at the independent publisher, Unbound, where he also runs Unbound's literary magazine, Boundless. His first book, In Search of One Last Song, was called the most important book on the countryside in years.
"Uncommon Ground is a genuinely remarkable book, an adventurous, intelligent, bold, empathetic, provocative, curious and argumentive exploration of the English countryside and its various human landscapes. Patrick Galbraith is unique among modern country writers in his capacity to draw out and marshall the many voices of our rural and near-rural communities; in this intrepid journey through the land-access debate, Galbraith brings to life the realities of our 'right to roam', and in the process delivers a raking survey of an England, ancient and modern, traditional and outlandish, that for too long has been left unexplored, and unspoken for."
– Richard Smyth
