The Three Layers of Access You Need to Know

Most people who walk in the British hills carry an assumption in their head that access is either allowed or forbidden. In reality, England and Wales have a patchwork of rights, permissions and traditions, and understanding which one applies to the ground under your boots changes both what you can do and how carefully you should behave. Broadly speaking, you will meet three things: open access land, public rights of way, and permissive paths. They overlap, they end abruptly, and they come with different freedoms. Knowing the difference is a core outdoor skill in itself — one that keeps you on the right side of landowners and keeps quiet routes quietly available.

A map and a bit of local information will tell you most of what you need. Ordnance Survey maps shade open access land in a pale wash, mark public footpaths as green dashes, and show bridleways differently again. What a map cannot show you is the mood of a farm, a lambing field or a newly fenced reservoir margin on a particular morning in April. Combine the paperwork with your eyes and ears.

Open Access Land: Freedom on the Map

Open access land comes mainly from the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 — usually just called the CROW Act — and covers around a million hectares of mountain, moor, heath, down and registered common in England and Wales. On it, you have a legal right to walk, and that right extends to wandering off paths, which is a genuine luxury. You can stop for lunch on a tussock, take a bearing across open moorland, or thread your own line up a featureless hillside.

That freedom is not unconditional. There are sensible, permanent restrictions and temporary closures:

• No cycling, horse riding or camping on open access land unless a right of way or permission allows it.
• Dogs must be on a fixed lead of no more than two metres between 1 March and 31 July, and at all times near livestock. This protects ground-nesting birds and lambs.
• Closures can be applied for land management, fire risk or conservation, and local signs or council notices should be respected.
• Some activities are excluded: lighting fires, taking water from a supply, and anything commercial.

If you are planning a quiet dip in a hill tarn, remember that the right to walk across open access land is not automatically a right to swim in whatever sits on it.

Public Footpaths, Bridleways and Byways

Public rights of way are the historic skeleton of British walking. They are legal highways, recorded on the definitive map held by the local highway authority, and they exist whatever the landowner might prefer. The key differences are worth committing to memory:

• Public footpath — walking only, on foot. Families with prams or wheelchairs may find stiles and gates a barrier.
• Public bridleway — walking, horse riding and cycling. Cyclists must give way to walkers and riders.
• Restricted byway — as above, plus horse-drawn vehicles and some motor vehicles.
• Byway open to all traffic — usually a muddy vehicle track, still legally walkable.

You need to stay on the line of the path as recorded, though a footpath does not have to be a visible trod. If a crop has grown across it, the law expects a path to be re-instated within a fortnight of the crop being planted, and walkers should use field margins where they exist. Gates, stiles and waymarks are the landowner's or council's responsibility, but reporting a broken stile is a small act of service that benefits everyone.

Permissive Paths and Local Goodwill

A permissive path is exactly what it sounds like: access granted by the landowner rather than by law. These routes often link up a footpath network across private ground, run through estate woodland, or offer a shortcut around a working farmyard. They can be closed on a whim, or shut one day each year to prevent a public right being established.

Treat them with extra care. Keep to the marked line, do not assume you can wander off it, and be scrupulous about closing gates and controlling dogs. If a permissive path is a pleasure to walk, saying so to the farmer at the gate is not just politeness — it is how the arrangement survives. Many estates keep paths open because walkers have shown they can be trusted.

Water, Rivers and Wild Swimming

Here the picture is genuinely different. There is no general right to swim in inland water in England and Wales, and the CROW access right does not cover the water itself. Wild swimming in rivers, lakes and tarns generally happens on a mix of:

• Public rights of navigation on some rivers, which allow passage but not necessarily paddling about.
• Permissive or historic bathing spots where swimming has become customary and tolerated.
• Tidal water below the mean high water mark — the sea and most estuaries are effectively open to swimmers.

Alongside access, read the water before you get in. Cold shock is the big risk in British hill tarns, even in August. Wade in slowly, keep an exit route in mind, avoid weirs, and never swim alone in remote water without telling someone where you are going. Weil's disease, blue-green algae and hidden underwater snags are all reasons to keep your first dip of the year short.

Skills That Keep Access Open

Every walker is, whether they like it or not, an ambassador for the next one. The habits that matter are simple and practical: check signs at gates, learn to read a map with a bearing, carry a head torch, and know how to descend a steep, loose slope safely. Leave gates as you find them, take litter home, and use a bothy or car park with the same care you would a friend's front room.

If a path is blocked, diverted or unclear, report it to the local highway authority rather than forcing a way through crops or over a wall. That is not just good manners — it is how the fragile, generous mesh of access rights in England and Wales is held together for everyone who comes after you.