Would you walk across a field alone?

[Summerloverr]

I do quite a lot of walking around my town, and one route involves walking across a field for 5-10 minutes.

I only do this during daylight and while it's usually quiet with no one around, there is the occasional dog walker etc.

But my friend thinks I am putting my line on the line by doing this, and says I am putting myself in danger. He said it's not safe for a lone woman to walk alone across fields.

I know there are news stories about horrible and unfortunate events, but they make the news because it's rare. AIBU to walk across quiet fields alone?

I do , I walk my dogs through a couple of fields and a public footpath to get to the woods , but I also walk alone the same route to the footpath which is across huge fields to get into town ... always in daylight I would walk later in the evening with my dogs but probably not alone

Walked up three fields today and along a very quiet lane by myself today, regular for me, I was honestly more concerned about coming across and startling an adder (they are around here) in the long grass than anything else.
I live in a very quiet area though, know the place well and being totally honest I'm quite big so possibly wouldn't be as much of a target as someone petite.
I'd feel more intimidated in the local town square of a Saturday night and more at risk of being attacked tbh.

I don't see it as a significant risk especially if you do it in a non routine way so that you are not in an identical place every day.
Many females walk and run on the lanes and woodland footpaths in my locality.

Yes so long as it was daylight and it didn't contain cows, which I've always had a (seemingly not so irrational) fear of.

Let me preface this by saying I think all women should walk across fields and be able to do so freely and without worrying about it.

I used to walk wherever I wanted - I walked home from nights out, I went on walks around canals, I also was a runner and ran in lots of different areas (parks, tracks, canals, fields, roads etc). I also loved going around the countryside and national parks and walking in woods and so on. I was injured badly in an accident, tore my knee, had surgery, it failed and tore again and as a result of walking so differently developed (well, I think it was from that but I suppose it could've been unrelated) quite a bad foot problem (morton's neuroma) that means I cannot walk without pain. Additionally, a few years ago I was assaulted by someone. I don't want to get into that at all but it was outside and it completely changed my perspective on things.

I still try to walk but it's often 2-5 minutes and in places like small parks with playgrounds (lots of women/families/children around and in sight) or along either residential streets with people in front gardens or busy main roads. I feel happy in parks with playgrounds, they have a different feel (I mean local parks not country parks).

I really want to get back to it as I miss it so much but it's complicated by both of those factors.

Women should be able to walk wherever they want but equally I can understand people having to consider it if they live in an unsafe area for example or have had bad previous experiences. I know, logically, statistically other things are more dangerous and I really miss going to woods and the countryside. Ironically what happened to me was in a quiet part of the city centre so it doesn't even make sense.

I absolutely hate the fact I am afraid of going into woods etc now.

Except when they do

Julia James: Callum Wheeler guilty of PCSO murder www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-61434459

One single example. And how many fields? Lol.

No they are doing jobs that mean they are out and about in quiet areas perfectly legitimately. Levi Bellfield used this method to take Sarah Payne, to murder Lyn and Megan Russell and Millie Dowler and many, many others . He didn't set out to murder, it was a bonus in his day. Since lockdown our tiny, quiet village has vans driving everywhere. There are parts of the 3 mile 'loop' of my village that have no houses. If anyone wanted to stop and grab you not a soul would hear or see anything. I don't walk alone because I have access to safer ways to exercise at home. I have weighed up my options and made my choice.

People are so bad at assessing risk. A woman is overwhelmingly more likely to be murdered by a partner than by a stranger in a field.

So what do women do? Happily start relationships and keep away from fields.

Utterly illogical in terms of risk management.

As long as there’s a right of way I would, why on earth wouldn’t I?

I walk the dog alone across fields all the time. She’s tiny so she’s no protection at all. The only place I’ve ever felt unsafe is in some very isolated woods, I won’t be going there alone again.

Yes, have been walking alone (sometimes with dog, often not) for at least 30 years if not more.

Have had a handful of odd encounters, but nothing that’s made me consider stopping. Not sure what my life would look like if I couldn’t go for a walk without worrying.

Weirdos don't tend to stray very far from home territory. Town weirdos are weird in town, country weirdos are weird in their local village. You don't need hordes of vulnerable people to attack, just one will do.

I've got an old friend who's husband was very insistent that she not walk around on her own. Not sure whether fields were a particular no-no but the message was clear - strange men posed a risk to her safety.

All the while he was happily knocking her senseless a few times a month.

She'd have been better off taking her chances in the fields.

It depends on sight lines and isolation.

I don’t go into heavily wooded areas alone.
An open field is probably fine.

a field of ripe corn, not a chance.

As kids we spent whole days out wandering around fields and never came across a single person. It was on our own land though. I don't know if I'd walk across fields owned by someone else. I don't think farmers/landowners like strangers walking through their land as they could get hurt and seek compensation. Other than that I wouldn't mind walking through fields.

I wouldn't give this a second thought. I run twice a week on my own, for 1-2 hrs, and all summer this will be over fields, along the canal/river, through woods - wherever I can find a footpath/trail. It just wouldn't occur to me not to.

I have never felt in any way vulnerable whilst out running apart from when I ran through Manchester city centre, and took in a short section of canal - plenty of people around, but it wasn't a particularly nice experience. So I'd much rather be out in the wilds/countryside.

I do not want to give people the wrong advice but some places are safer than others. I could walk through Gadebridge Park in Hemel Hempstead in the 1980's in the dark but came unstuck in a park in Fallow Road in Luton which is mixed race and a place where you need to be sensible.

Yes and I do all the time, there are some lovely fields and forests to walk through where I live and I often go alone or with the dog.

No issues here, tbh I always look unapproachable so probs wouldn’t have anyone come near me anyway.

I struggle to think of anywhere you are less at risk than an empty field in daylight.

I would in daylight. Would not occur to me not to.

would not occur to me not to,
i have my ddog

but avoid the field with cattle

God no. I wouldn't. I stick to urban roads or busy parks unless I'm walking with someone else. Sad but true.

I walk across one every day with my dog and about 25 years ago a woman was murdered in area which remains unsolved but the field does usually have other dog walkers around . It’s such a nice walk next to a river that it seems a shame to miss out on it .