Lord above some people are just... unbelievable!

I prefer a carpeted stair personally.

[Jokes that don’t work on a written word platform]

I like a hard stare, myself.

Try living in Scotland…nothing private or sacred thanks to SNP and Right to Roam!!! 😤
You would have no right to ask them to leave your land only your deck chairs!!
Plus you wouldn’t be able to make them put the dog on a lead unless there was livestock in the field!!!

That’s nothing. When I was growing up we had some people randomly landing their hot air balloon in our field of horses, which absolutely scared the shit out of them, including a mare in foal.

My sister's house backs onto school grounds. There used to be a gate in the hedge in the back garden, but so many kids used it as a short-cut that they blocked it off.

We have a very popular vintage vehicle rally in our village and our house has an excellent view of the route. People sit all along our garden wall, sometimes on the plants (one of those is walls that’s also a planter). I said to DH I’m going to sell tea and coffee from the garden this year.

You would not believe the s**t some people remember . I live in Scotland and very rural on rare occasions I have people park in my drive when there are miles of other places to park and on one occasion I had one person open the front door asking me if it was a cafe , their excuse was that e there was nothing for miles and they saw 2 tables outside ( one in the front garden one in the back ) so assumed .
Not to mention the amount of people I caught putting rubbish in my bins and the get upset as I tell them to take it out it’s them .

I haven't RTFT but I get wanderers/lost souls into my yard. Last year a woman ducked under my washing line to admire the view and looked shocked at the fact that I told her she shouldn't be in there.

Scotland is completely different as population density is very low and certainly a lot lower than England with much more land that is not used, certainly even for farming. England and Scotland are therefore not comparable.

Also please note my post referenced mainly farmland, ie the comments re crops etc. There is no automatic right to roam on farmland in Scotland.

You are clearly missing a trick - get your apron on and start charging! LOL

@Barquentine or they can just pass a law to allow right to roam as they did in Scotland. Much easier way to allow people access to the land.

Not just in the countryside. One summer kids from the local school went through a phase of sitting in our garden to have their lunch. Used to leave loads of litter and were threatening towards my daughter when she asked them to leave.

It's obviously a private garden! Dread to think how they'd behave in the countryside.

@Ilovelurchers This is he most entitled thing I've ever read on the entire internet

Fucking hell. Genuinely gobsmacked

Hot chocolate contains milk powder and sweetener of some type as well as cocoa powder. Cocoa is pure. You can add sugar, cream whatever but in basic form it’s like dark choc.

The basic issue is people just can’t walk all over peoples crops, peoples livelihood and food for us and their animals. They cannot walk through protected nature reserves, woodlands and wetlands etc without causing harm to the environment unless there is money available for a management programme and clearly defined preferably raised walkways on a clearly defined route.

If there isn’t an established right of way then no one should be walking on private land. It’s private.

If people want more rights of way then councils will have to compulsory purchase private land and will also have to foot the bill for its maintenance because I can’t see someone whose had their land taken off them by the council happy to clear away all the dog poo and litter left behind by inconsiderate walkers.
Im also just imagining the complaints and financial claims from landowners to councils as walkers and their dogs just can’t seem to keep on the designated routeway.

Whilst more access and more rights of way would be lovely I just can’t see the council paying for the land or indeed the constant clear up and maintenance.
Walkers et all shot themselves in the foot during the pandemic whilst trespassing and some of us had to deal and pay for the destruction caused.

I've camped for decades it was usually £2 per night, basic facilities. Good luck finding that now.
I can see why people wild camp/stealth camp. A basic site with a loo and washing tap should be freely available and cheap.
Unfortunately now everything is stupid expensive with heated toilet blocks and £15 for a tent, £3 per person, £2 for a car, £2 for a dog.
It has sucked the joy out of camping.

I live in.a small market town popular with visitors. We have a tiny yard with a table and chairs. One day I could hear someone calling "hello" went out and a couple tried to.give me their afternoon tea order. There's no.signs up.to.indicate we're a tea room. I said so. They said, are you sure?

@FoxyLoxyLoo Don't you go over to them and demand they leave? Not that you should have to, of course. I'd be getting either an electrified fence or barbed wire at this stage. Maybe even tie a walkie talkie to one of the fence posts so you can loudly tell them to bugger off, from your own home!

@DuIcieDomum I am so, so glad your DP got rid of them and you hadn't come on here to say that you'd quietly brought the kids in and allowed it like so many on MN seem to in these kinds of situations. It always makes me irrationally angry

A road network is never as convenient.
I ran foul of this. Was walking across a public path I had walked when I was young and went over a stile. Had a woman tell me off for walking through her private land and she directed me to a road I could walk along instead. Why would I want to walk along a road with cars going by, rather than across a field?

Another problem is maps not being regularly updated.
Rights of way can be diverted to make way for other stuff, new developments etc
They are sometimes removed if a new path or road network is deemed, just as convenient.
Requests by homeowners if a route runs too close to their property and through their garden making safety and security an issue could also result in a reroute

Approved requests made by landowners and developers are not updated on maps regularly enough and of course if your paper map isn’t that up to date it’s a problem

And on a nice day there are masses of people walking near us on easy to get to footpaths. Most people do not want to drive miles to a national park, they want easy access to walking near them.

But private gardens are not covered by right to roam unless people try and claim the many acres the back of their house is their private garden.
I agree we need access to cheap camping. We are going abroad for a week and our accommodation is not much more than paying to pitch our own tent on a campsite. We used to go camping a lot, it is too expensive now.

Right to roam, only really works at high elevation (imho) otherwise you could walk in a private garden freely..which no one wants.

I'm a hiker, I walk miles and love the availability of footpaths, but I know that I am lucky to live in a rural area with access.

I would like to see more availability to the country, more free or super cheap camping. So many countries have free access to campsites and even public use cabins, which you can book for free (Sweden/canada)
I realise that idiots abuse it in Scotland and litter, but education and time, would improve the problem. (plus CCTV and heavy fines)