RALLIES are planned to take place in London and Princetown this week, as a Dartmoor landowner pushes forward with legal moves that could overturn the right to wild camp within the park.

The demonstrations are timed to coincide with a high court ruling on the legal challenge against the National Park, brought by Alexander Darwall, a hedge fund manager and Dartmoor’s sixth-largest landowner.

Darwall, owner of the 4,000 acre Blachford estate on southern Dartmoor, is seeking to remove the public’s right to wild camp on sections of the moor, which has been permitted since 1985.

Dartmoor is the sole remaining area of England and Wales where wild camping in designated areas is legal, without any landowner’s permission. Although all land in Dartmoor National Park is in private hands, local farmers, known as commoners, have had a right to graze their livestock on the wilder, unenclosed areas of the moor for centuries. It is in these same areas that people have been wild camping for over 100 years, with bylaws enacted in 1985 enshrining it as a right.

However, the legal basis of these rights is currently being challenged, as seen in papers lodged by Darwall’s lawyers to the high court and obtained by the Guardian newspaper. According to these documents, the Darwalls argue that there is no legal right to camp on Dartmoor, as the Dartmoor Commons Act, which designates the park authority’s power to create bylaws, does not explicitly allow for camping without the landowner’s consent.

Dartmoor National Park Authority dispute this position, and the high court appeal has triggered both local and national outcry. There are also fears that a ruling against the park authority would jeopardise the future of challenges such as Ten Tors and the Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

Campaigners will gather outside the Royal Courts of Justice, where the case is being held, at noon on Monday 12th December; with a separate rally happening at Princetown, Dartmoor at 11am on Sunday.

The rallies are organised by The Stars Are For Everyone, a campaign backed by the Right to Roam organisation and the Campaign for National Parks.

Robert Macfarlane, Cambridge professor, prominent author and figurehead of the campaign, has asked people to share their memories, stories and experiences of the park to highlight the value of wild camping and ‘show what stands to be lost.’ Mr Macfarlane added: ‘It’s appalling that multi-millionaire land-owners are taking legal action to deny the public our long-established and much-beloved right to wild camp on areas of Dartmoor

‘A night under Dartmoor’s skies has been a mind-opening, life-shaping experience for tens of thousands of people down the decades. At this moment of ecological crisis, we’ve never needed these opportunities to connect deeply with nature more. Please join these rallies, or raise your voice in protest however you can, to help us stop this vital right being rescinded.’

Beca, a teacher, Ten Tors volunteer and one of the organisers of the demonstration, said: ‘We think it’s education over privatisation. We need to teach people how to camp on the moor rather than ban them from it.

‘For me as a teacher, this is for the future generations, because I’ve seen kids grow and develop and learn on Dartmoor. It’s so important that they have that. The people who will need this access most will be the people it will be taken from.’

Amy-Jane Beer of the Right to Roam campaign, which is also backing the Dartmoor campaign, says: ‘With nature connection in the UK at an all-time low – the worst in Europe – the transformative experience of spending a night or several under open skies is more needed now more than ever.’

The Darwalls were not available to comment, but has previously stated that it was ‘not true’ that they were attempting to restrict people’s pastimes on the moor, and that they are ‘simply trying to clarify the meaning and extent of the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985, given their responsibilities as land managers.’