is there an issue with going for a long walk in the countryside?

[EricaNernie]

that is remote and accessible on foot?

why should this be for an hour?

Maybe I’m talking to different people at cross purposes? I can’t keep up

Bloody hell.

Just leave the access alone for a while if you have to deniable or short cut, & stick to 'main' routes.

Who cares if your walk is shorter & boring. We all have to make sacrifices. This is fuck all right now

If you wouldn't normally walk in the countryside, please don't start now - farmers are at one of their busiest periods and it is hard enough for them generally with people & dogs not following the correct code, however people who would never normally go out for a walk have now started to, which is not helpful as they don't seem to understand or even care.

For heavens sake stop driving out to anywhere - they don't have the infrastructure, shop supplies or healthcare wise for you to keep spreading the germs - you are literally risking the lives of people who live there & those that are caring for them.

Just stay home - it's not hard, this isn't a long bank holiday weekend.

People who would normally go to a gym or play a sport are now going for a walk or run. So the numbers of people out doing this have increased.

Not a problem at all. I know folks who've been doing 70k on their bikes from home - no interaction whatsoever

It's fine

If you wouldn't normally walk in the countryside, please don't start now

I’m afraid you have no right to say this. A public footpath is just that. Public.people have the right to walk there, like it or no.

Just stay home - it's not hard, this isn't a long bank holiday weekend.

Says the person with acres of land and whose work / hobby involves being outdoors.

The government have been clear. Stay at home, but get outdoors for exercise. You have no jurisdiction to stop people doing what’s perfectly legal.

The 'daily exercise' loophole is bringing all sorts of people onto footpaths they have never felt the urge to visit before.

“Loophole”...it’s government guidance!

Delighted to report dhorse happy and gate still firmly locked.

People must stay at home as much as possible to reduce the spread of the virus. But you can also still go outside once a day for a walk, run, cycle. When doing this you must minimise the time you are out of your home and stay at least two metres away from anyone else that isn’t from your household.

That's from gov.uk. and I'm pretty sure I've heard or read that exercise should mean a walk of up to an hour, a run of 30 minutes or a bike ride between those times. So going for a 3 hour yomp through the countryside isn't in keeping with the "stay at home" message.

DropZone Michael Gove said that in an interview once. His opinion, not Govt advice.

Yes, of course people can use footpaths over farmer's land with sheep in the fields. They are legally allowed to open gates and have access across the land.

Whether you should or not is up to you. We are legally allowed to ring the gp if we have a sore finger, but most people are trying not to do things that make life worse for gps. If you can avoid opening and closing gates, or walkkng through fields at lambing time, then I would, personally. Of course you don't have to, and some people just like to do what they want with no thought to anyone else, that's just life.

Why on earth shouldn’t people who don’t normally walk in the countryside be perfectly at liberty to do so now? We’ve always walked but we don’t own the countryside.

People are shut indoors and not allowed to do anything they normally do,they have as much need and right as anybody else to go walking in the countryside.

Why on earth shouldn’t people who don’t normally walk in the countryside be perfectly at liberty to do so now? i think the point is that the sheer numbers are making things difficult, plus a lot of "new walkers" don't adhere to the countryside code, probably never heard of it and could care less, hence gates being left open.

It’s fascinating that so many mnetters feel that farmland is for leisure purposes and that farmers should share it when other leisure’s facilities are closed.
I hope our local farmer spreads the chicken poo that he has put ready for spreading this weekend. It may put a few off.
Those empty fields are being prepped for essential food growing. Where do you think your veg and meat are coming from this year?
If you want to enjoy the great outdoors while you are unable to work why not help out on the farms that are crying out for extra labour?

I live in a rural area and no I'm not a farmer however I have changed my walking route to avoid any gates or stiles. It does take longer but I'm sure my dog isn't complaining, hes saving all his complaints up for me since I won't let him off the lead now. On my walk yesterday there were people queuing to go over stiles and through kissing gates. it's so unnecessary round here there are so many walks which do not use stiles or gates at all but of course they don't have the best views.

Yes people can currently still use public footpaths however some common sense would be welcome too before the government needs to take further action and restrict our freedom more.

Go and enjoy your walk. Just wash your hands before you leave and after you get back.

I live in a large village surrounded by farm land. Almost every day I go walking (from my house) through the fields with our spaniel.

I stick to public footpaths. Dog on lead usually, as she is elderly and has gone deaf so she can't hear me recalling her.

Enjoy it. It is the one thing that is keeping me half sane at the moment.

Are these farms seeing an unusual influx of walkers near towns? I ask because I live in a very rural area and I have seen no increase of people in the areas I walk, they are deserted as usual.
Someone said we should walk in parks and not on farmland - well there are no parks within at least 20 miles of here. In fact, I don't think I have walked in an urban or suburban park in my whole life. There is an awful lot of fairly remote, fairly ordinary (as opposed to chocolate box pretty) working countryside in England, that is criss crossed with footpaths that barely see a soul from one month to the next.

If they are worried about people touching gates then they should wear gloves and/or wash their hands when they get back, in the same way they presumably need to be careful with post and shopping.

Do you realise that farmers can’t keep just popping home to wash their hands just because some randomers have decided that their land is the perfect place to wander through and touch the gates they have to get through?

Farmers have a job to do. They’re being put at risk, completely unnecessarily. Many of them are older. They don’t have a voluntary group to call on to do their job for them.

How hard is it to just stay away away from their land and just not put them at additional risk?

I live in a village about 5 miles from a market town. Yes, the volume of walkers is a problem. Lots with dogs off leads, unfamiliar with the routes, walking all over the fields, dogs barking at horses. It's a nightmare. It is these types of people that cause upset, not the responsible types that are doing it correctly.
Friends of ours live up the road, both elderly and self isolating whilst trying to deal with lambing without their usual help. They have footpaths along the edge of their fields, which is away from the farmhouse. Several times this week they have had families walking through their farm yard with dogs off leads. They've even had children climbing and playing on the hay in their barns while Mum and Dad sit on a bale of hay and get their thermos out.
There has been a general lack of respect and sense of entitlement which is dangerous for the farmers, the livestock, and the walkers themselves.

Some people are so entitled.

Gov advice is clear. A 3 hour walk is NOT essential

I am a farmer and a member of the Ramblers. Does this make me a entitled landowner or a reckless member of the public?
Also, slightly from the point but I know that the National Trust (I'm a member of that too) has stopped access to their parkland, does this include the footpaths that run over NT land?

This came up on my Facebook today- sadly a lot of people who are now out in the country haven't a clue of the damage they're doing. And yes, those people are probably in a minority, but like the odd farmer who blocks right of ways, it only takes one person to do damage. So of course the farmers are nervous at this time, it only takes one idiot with a lose dog to cause multiple sheep to miscarry.

It’s fascinating that so many mnetters feel that farmland is for leisure purposes and that farmers should share it when other leisure’s facilities are closed.

Public footpaths are for leisure purposes 🤷🏽‍♀️

You are mixing up walking for pleasure with taking limited exercise to get through the lockdown. One of them is all about you, the other is about other people.

Its fine to walk on footpaths near your home responsibly as its always been. Obviously some people actually live in the country/coast/national parks and that is their local. But now is not the time to start having all day hikes and pretending its reasonable exercise.