Would you walk across someone else's fields?

[hotpatooties1]

Just that really. I've been surprised since moving to a farm just how many people are willing to walk across other peoples land and allow their dogs to run all over it too. Some of the fields have just been sewn and are sprayed with fertiliser regularly..they don't seem to care.

I wouldn't do it, was brought up on and around farms and was told not to walk over other peoples land. I understand the right to roam and that lawfully, they are doing nothing wrong. It just doesn't seem right.

This morning I drove past one of our fields that is gated. A woman had gone into it with her dog, let it off lead and had a kid on a bike in it..AIBU? Would you do that?

If I had been able to clearly see the footpath I would have stuck to it and got where I needed to go, but I walked around multiple field edges to try to find the (weathered and falling over) footpath signs. Now I've checked the ordnance survey map I can see that the true footpath was along a route that didn't look anything like a footpath and at right angles to the footpath arrow on a sign that I saw.

Stubble fields yes (we walk around the outside), grass fields only after they’ve been cut and baled (again around the outside). And I am mainly talking about one field in particular owned by our neighbour farmer who we have asked in the past. Dogs off lead but they stay close to heel anyway and obviously clean up any poo. Oh also been in after the pea harvest to collect up the missed peas

@Rocket1982

Well I wouldn't normally do this but actually yesterday I dropped my daughter at a scout hut for a holiday club. It was on a road with fast traffic and no pavement, not even a tiny verge. It was 2 lanes with hedges right next to the road on both sides. The bus dropped us near the scout hut but even going 20m to get to it was scary! I had to go somewhere to wait for my daughter and followed a sign for a public footpath on to farm land. I saw one further very non-obvious sign on the land but it was not clear where the footpath went. After 45 mins I was lost and had to go back out the same gate. There were no other options than to walk on the road with fast traffic inches away from me. I dont know whose responsibility it is to maintain the footpaths but i felt I was in danger because i didnt have safe access to a path around the farm land.

Hang on, have I got this right? You used a footpath that starts on a country road with no pavement (like most of them). So you think the farmer is responsible for building a pavement along this public road between the footpath and the nearby bus stop?

• people can't build their own pavements along a public road
• do you also want the farmer to build pavements between the footpath and the front gates of all local residents up the road?
• you are crackers.

I'm Irish and we don't have right to roam in any format really. Having said that we have loads of natural trails which are available to all but you definitely cant trek through anyone's field you want.
I'm a farmers daughter and glad about that, we were mainly beef and sheep farmers and I just don't see how it would work with keeping gates closes, dogs off lead etc.

I will walk across/on fields after harvesting but before sowing/furrowing/ploughing.

I did it with a field at the end of our village two years ago as I have an app that reveals where ever you have been on a map. I use it for roads normally but I felt it a challenge to uncover this whole field in a week, walking up and down it at 5 feet intervals. This particular field is not in sight of the farmers house, there are no gates on it and has at least 5 access points despite it not being part of a footpath or bridleway. Who was I actually hurting by doing this?

I understand that there has to be a blanket aversion to doing it, as a person walking with their dog soon becomes people picnicking, or bringing their offroad bikes or having campfires. It's easy to say "I'm respectful of the crops" but others wouldn't be.

To the people saying "you wouldn't like it if people came into your private garden". No I wouldn't, but thats because from my garden you can see into my house, there's access to my garage and it would feel like an invasion of a personal space thats for my family to relax in. If I had 1000 acres of land (and it's a dream of mine to one day do so), I really wouldn't mind along as people weren't coming through my yard and were just walking and not causing damage.

The poster was complaining about having to walk on a road to a bus stop. Nothing to do with the right of way.

Field with right of way, absolutely I'd use it. Private field, not a chance!

If I use a public right of way I always stick to the beaten path.

@FrothyB

I will walk across/on fields after harvesting but before sowing/furrowing/ploughing.

I did it with a field at the end of our village two years ago as I have an app that reveals where ever you have been on a map. I use it for roads normally but I felt it a challenge to uncover this whole field in a week, walking up and down it at 5 feet intervals. This particular field is not in sight of the farmers house, there are no gates on it and has at least 5 access points despite it not being part of a footpath or bridleway. Who was I actually hurting by doing this?

I understand that there has to be a blanket aversion to doing it, as a person walking with their dog soon becomes people picnicking, or bringing their offroad bikes or having campfires. It's easy to say "I'm respectful of the crops" but others wouldn't be.

To the people saying "you wouldn't like it if people came into your private garden". No I wouldn't, but thats because from my garden you can see into my house, there's access to my garage and it would feel like an invasion of a personal space thats for my family to relax in. If I had 1000 acres of land (and it's a dream of mine to one day do so), I really wouldn't mind along as people weren't coming through my yard and were just walking and not causing damage.

Harvested fields (stubble) is sometimes undersown with a second crop. So you may have been walking on germinating seeds and seedlings.

I've recently taken up Nordic walking and am amazed by how many footpaths there are. There is absolutely no need for people to tramp across farmer's fields. Just because a field 'looks' empty doesn't mean it is or that you have access.

And don't get me on the subject of pooping and scooping. Is it really that hard?

This is why we've just spent nearly 9k fencing off the right of way that goes through our land. Doesn't mean that aresholes don't climb over the five bar gates and wander all over our fields still though. When I ask them where the hell they think they are going they always claim to be lost.

"Hang on, have I got this right?
You used a footpath that starts on a country road with no pavement (like most of them). So you think the farmer is responsible for building a pavement along this public road between the footpath and the nearby bus stop?

• people can't build their own pavements along a public road
• do you also want the farmer to build pavements between the footpath and the front gates of all local residents up the road?
• you are crackers."

No, you haven't got this right. I wanted to go via an ALTERNATIVE route which was a public footpath and avoid the main road that had no pavement. I'm not crackers but you might be?

You need to laminate signs and put them at each entry point. That's what farmers have done around here. Most people simply have no idea what is/isn't allowed and if you put a polite sign up, they'll know and the majority of people will abide by it. There will still be a minority of total assholes who will ignore it. I live on a housing estate on the edge of farmland and people used to let their dogs just roam into my front garden, shit on it and wander away. So I sympathise with the poster spending 9k as we had to spend similar to totally redo and privatise our own front garden from people who seemed to think it was a dog toilet.

I live on a farm and own a small dog and over the years we have encountered; people with or without dogs walking in fields without permission
Using fields without permission for kids quads and the likes
Opening gates as they feel it's cruel to have animals in fields
Throwing rubbish over hedges. This can be fatal to animals and cause great damage to machinery which in turn can cause accidents
Dog poo is fatal to cows
Never enter any field without permission, it could be grazing or crop or have animals . Our own animals are mostly used to people and traffic, but they are a pack animal and protective of one another, any stranger or dog will un nerve them . Any that have young with them are also to be avoided as are those cows in heat or randy bulls seeking such.

Also be careful of weeds which are common in rural areas and insects.
Please do not dump litter or rubbish as it does untold damage. We have certain fields that before either animals or machinery go into them we must go pick up litter , it is shocking how much and what inside a couple of days.
There is a housing estate backing onto a river and it is frequently full of nappies.
But there have been some lovely folk who have moved to the area and respect the country code .

@davidstuart

If you own land you know their is a right of way, are you suggesting that all rights of way be withdrawn im sure landlowners would love that but as a dog owner I wouldnt, farmers do not maintain signs and in fact take them down, put up styles instead of gates so dog walkers cant use them, neither do they maintain fences and are trigger happy to get the chance to shoot a dog and the law always backs them up when in one case the dog had run away when he hit an electric fence, the owner ran to get her little springer back, when she got to the field it was running back to her, no animals harmed and the evil farmer shot the dog dead evil w*nker , land owners and dog owner hate each other

Farmers install styles because people do not shut gates. If a dog is worrying livestock, the farmer has every right to shoot it (even "playing" counts, pregnant ewes can miscarry and animals can die of exhaustion).

Keep your dog on a lead unless you have explicit permission to the contrary.

they are called stiles

grass is a crop

@aiwblam

You need to laminate signs and put them at each entry point. That's what farmers have done around here. Most people simply have no idea what is/isn't allowed and if you put a polite sign up, they'll know and the majority of people will abide by it. There will still be a minority of total assholes who will ignore it. I live on a housing estate on the edge of farmland and people used to let their dogs just roam into my front garden, shit on it and wander away. So I sympathise with the poster spending 9k as we had to spend similar to totally redo and privatise our own front garden from people who seemed to think it was a dog toilet.

Finally someone who is making sense. I would always abide by signs and markers but there often aren't any. The pp who seems to think people are lying they say they are lost may want to really think about that . Whilst I don't doubt some of them may be lying, if there are a lot of them it is likely to be the truth for most of them and maybe better signage might help. If it is only a few people then it doesn't seem as big of a problem as suggested and whilst irritating, maybe prosecuting for trespass is an option?

I think it's really the user who is responsible for checking an OS map before they attempt to use a PROW - it's never been easier to access OS maps via phone app which show your location too so you barely need to be able to read a map at all. If the footpath has been re-routed and not adequately signposted, that's different.

We have laminated signs on all our gates that say private land no access. Doesn't stop the buggers climbing in