Comment by ErroneousBosh
4 hours ago
> In theory this means I can just open a gate to a farm, and walk across their fields
You absolutely can, though, as long as you leave everything exactly the way you found it and don't actually walk right through my garden.
You can in fact actually walk right through my garden if you ask first and get permission, but that holds true anywhere.
I could have written 4x the amount on Right to Roam, but I didn't. My point is that it changes how landowners treat their land and access by default. They could provide gates and come after people for not respecting their land, but instead they (usually) provide alternative access which actually delivers the spirit of the law - a right to roam.
I'm Irish, living in Scotland, and it's just unbelieveable the difference it makes. Here [0] is a perfect example of a situation that this solves. Murder Hole beach (in the same ish area) has similar issues, the farmer who owned the field that you accessed it kept a bull in that field.
[0] https://www.donegaldaily.com/2017/06/22/fury-as-access-shut-...