The Ramblers’ Association, and The Book of Trespass

Is the Ramblers Association still relevant? Their name is definitely an anachronism, and in the eyes of some, immediately marks them out as an organisation for the over-60s and ‘woolly hat brigade’.

No-one rambles any more. People haven’t rambled since the days of the Kinder Mass Trespass and Ewan McColl. We don’t even hill-walk these days, we hike, having adopted (as with so many other things that are social media led) the American-English term.

And if we like to do our hiking as part of a group, we just tend to put a call out on Facebook or Instagram, or join an informal Meetup group rather than a formal society.

So are the Ramblers still relevant? I certainly hope so, because I’ve just re-joined. And they are relevant of course, because they speak up for us, and campaign on access rights. Ain’t no-one else gonna do that in the way that the Ramblers do. Certainly not Meetup or Kamoot or Facebook, and although other organisation like the BMC and Open Spaces Society play their part, it tends to be the Ramblers who take the lead.

Access rights have never been given away easily. Ever since the 17th Century, when the rich and powerful started stealing land off us commoners through the Enclosure Acts (sticking a wall around their ill-gotten gains, and sticking two fingers up to everyone except them and their mates) it’s been a battle. Most of our public footpaths only exist today because historically they were routes to church, or to work, and it wasn’t in the big landowners’ interest to deny access to them. Had it been, then they would have because, with very few exceptions, that’s how they roll.

The last major piece of legislation in Wales and England was the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (CRoW Act of 2000) which amongst other things gave access to large areas of moorland. At the time, the Country Landowners Association and their allies threw a bit of a tantrum, claiming (almost) that it would lead to the end of civilisation as we know it. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t. The law could, and should, have gone a lot further and given us the same right that walkers in Scotland now have – to be able to walk almost anywhere, as long as we behave responsibly.

The current battle is one against time, and against the Conservative Government’s deadline of 2026, at which point any footpaths not formally registered will be lost forever. The Ramblers Association ‘Don’t Lose Your Way’ campaign has found 49,000 miles of them, and seeks to register as many of these as they can. And that’s important, and alone is worth the membership fee. Please consider joining yourself, and supporting their work.

And if you fancy a good read about the politics of access rights, and how we got to where we are today, have a look at ‘The Book of Trespass’ by Nick Hayes (published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, ISBN: 9781526604729). It’s probably the best you’ll find on the subject.

EDIT : Since writing this, and largely because of representations made by the Ramblers, the deadline of 2026 has now been dropped in both Wales and England.

EDIT : And then the flip-flop Tories in England changed their mind again, and have come up with a new deadline of 2031!