The right to camp on Dartmoor commons will be decided by the Supreme Court. Photo: Dartmoor NPA

The Open Spaces Society has expressed its dismay at the decision of the Supreme Court to allow a challenge to a ruling on camping on Dartmoor.

The society, the oldest national conservation body, said it will apply to support the national park authority in any Supreme Court hearings.

It intervened in support of the Dartmoor National Park Authority in the Court of Appeal, and said it was delighted when that court ruled that the Dartmoor Commons Act 1985 gave the public the right to camp on all the Dartmoor commons.

The matter will now return to the higher court for a further round of debate and a final judgment.

In January 2023, Sir Julian Flaux, Chancellor of the High Court, upheld Alexander Darwall and his wife Diana’s contention that the legal definition of open-air recreation did not include camping.

The hedge-fund manager, who has owned the Blachford Estate and Stall Moor, north of Ivybridge, since 2013, argued that the Act did not give the public the right to camp without the landowner’s permission.

The national park authority brought a case to the Appeal Court, which ruled that the act did permit backpack camping on some of Dartmoor’s commons without the permission of the landowner.

Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society, said: “We are deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court has granted the Darwalls leave to appeal.

“We firmly believe that the legal arguments are clear, that there is a right to backpack camping on the Dartmoor commons. However, we shall fight on, and shall give our support to the Dartmoor National Park Authority in this important case, to prove again, beyond all doubt, that there is such a right.”