AIBU to be fed up with walkers trespassing on our land?

@Scaryscarytimes if you live in a tiny tiny house and want to enjoy the countryside, there's nothing to stop you. That was me, in a small city flat. I've walked for miles in the countryside and enjoyed the National Parks for years. I've literally never felt the need to damage farmland, worry animals or disrupt the farmers' work I've never had a dog or a portable BBQ, and if it eat, I clear it away. It's that simple.
Every year I discover new walks and new vistas. It's entirely possible, even if you stick rigidly to the right of way.

Stop being so polite for god's sake!!!!!!!

I totally agree with you but the problem seems to be that as more and more people try to move to the country for a better quality of life (whatever that is), the more that those of us trying to make a living there have to deal with their nonsense. It’s not a theme park; it’s a factory. Dogs are actually dangerous both physically and from their faeces and where do these people think their food comes from?
Also, the right to roam in Scotland (responsible access) does not give you the right to walk through standing arable crops. My understanding is that their rights are conditional on acting responsibly, which includes not causing damage to crops or interfering with a farmer's livelihood so people still couldn’t do what they are doing to you. Some people on this thread are so ignorant.

Wow- this sign says it all really- entitlement cuts both ways. Plenty of people ‘work hard’ but can’t afford to feed their families, let alone buy land. I imagine there is also a great deal of inherited land also…
im not excusing dog fouling or damaging crops, but there is an imbalance here

I sympathise with your position, but in Scotland people are entitled to walk across fields if they don't contain crops. They have to exercise that right responsibly and landowners are required to facilitate that right. So perhaps you're betraying your ignorance in suggesting that something is absolutely outrageous and unworkable when it's been happening in Scotland for a long time. I've walked across many fields of sheep, never doing any damage or frightening the animals. And no, that's not the same as walking through someone's garden. Gardens are excluded from the right to roam, as are farmyards. The idea is that a small number of people (this is more the case in Scotland than in England) own most of the land, and that without a right to roam that deprives the majority of citizens of the right to enjoy their own country. The problem of course comes when rights are abused, and no doubt through people not being educated and brought up to behave responsibly. But I do think that land owners are unwilling to see things from the other perspective - the perspective of people who spend most of their lives shut in tiny houses and flats with a few square metres of overlooked garden.
Key points when managing land | Scottish Outdoor Access Code

You don’t need to fence off all your fields, but you do need to fence off the ‘pinch points’ where people are leaving the footpath/ignoring signage, and wandering into your land. Get a map out, contact your County Council PRoW officer, and work out how to stop this. There is a solution. You just need to find it.

Good luck!

Ignorant and stupid thing to say. Where do you think your food comes from?

Some people are idiots.

Not true. We have a small field at the back of our house, an old farmhouse. The public footpath is adjacent to our drive, with two stiles at both entrances to the field. The path is kept clear and is clearly sign-posted. Occasionally sheep (not ours) graze in the field. We have had people wandering around our house and garden, throwing rubbish everywhere, letting their dogs loose despite signs reminding people about ground-nesting birds in the spring/summer months, and, as I mentioned in a previous post, setting up a tent in our private garden which is clearly not public land. The level of entitlement from some people is through the roof but, in my experience, rarely the landowners.

It doesn’t surprise me at all that most people are combative when spoken to. It’s the same here. I’m so damn tired of people being where they shouldn’t be, gates being left open and animas being fed.
We have given up this year and fenced the worst place. People routinely stopped to picnic in one of our fields, leaving litter and once a disposable BBQ in the field with livestock in. Well the joke is on them now as we have just put up a high fence and planted hedging to make the pathway clear, narrow and without the view across the countryside. The locals are up in arms but tough, we have tried to work with them and now we have had enough.

People witter on about open access , if you want access learn how to respect the land and the people who care take it. Don’t leave your litter, 💩 in the fields (no I’m not joking) and shut the god damned gates. It’s not hard. Public right of way are just that a right of way. Not somewhere to stop and have a picnic, not somewhere to exercise your unruly dogs. A right of way from A to B nothing more. Farms are working landscapes, our factory floor if you like. You don’t demand access to local factories do you? So don’t demand access to working farmland either.

Excellent suggestion!

That’s the same fencing we have put in , same set up….the footpath goes through the middle of the field so fenced in both sides.

We all have to eat.

That field 2-3 miles away from their house is not some random piece of land that they selfishly keep pretty for their private entertainment. It is the equivalent of your WFH space, whether that is a laptop on your kitchen table or a nice, quiet room set up for your convenience. Farm fields are working spaces, even if you townie cannot see anything happening in them. Where do you think food comes from? Do you want to eat bread made from dogshit-smeared wheat? Do you want to eat bread at all? Or does it not matter to you if trespassers trample the wheat so that it is unusable? You know the dust that you rinse off your potatoes before you cook them? How lovely for you to be confident it is just soil. Would you feel the same if you knew that the potato field has been used as a dog toilet by hundreds of dogwalkers? I’m sure you’ll complain of milk gets more expensive. Do you know how little farmers are paid for their milk? Do you think that they can afford to euthanise cows who have been poisoned by leftover picnic rubbish, or injured by eating litter?

It’s worse than comparing farm restorers to strangers picnicking in your own front garden. It’s more like strangers picnicking in your WFH space and using your open laptop as a cheeseboard.

BTW, I’m a townie.

That reminds me of the old joke:

I stepped outside my front door the other day, only to find a German shepherd taking a big steaming dump in my front garden... and then, as if that wasn't bad enough, his dog came in and did the same!

Your bias is showing.

Yes, never mind the damage to the environment and injury to animals, as long as we can bash evil landowners.

Nope. OP said they left mess and let their dogs shit on land used for crops. I’ve seen threads on MN (rightly) going ballistic at dog walkers letting their dogs pee on their front gardens. Your bias is showing.

Yes, this - I can't believe it isn't blatantly obvious to everybody. Where do they think all the fresh food in the supermarkets comes from?

If you want the best of both worlds: beautiful landscapes that are specifically designated for the public to enjoy and walk through, you can join the National Trust for around £15 a month. There's really no need to commandeer somebody's livelihood for your leisure time.

Landowners show their entitlement by comparing a walker walking across one of their fields 2 or 3 miles away from where they live to someone "roaming" in a person's small garden.

Which is never going to happen, so right to roam is bullshit. Would you still be in favour if people had the right to roam in your back garden ?

I’m in favour of right to roam so no sympathy from me except to agree that the people should respect the land and not leave a mess.

There is already a way for young people to learn - it’s called the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme.