Today, the public has wide-ranging rights to access the outdoors. This may be through public roads, rights of way, core paths or the general right of access to land and inland water created by the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.
The general right of access – access rights – comes with responsibilities. A person only has a right of access if it is exercised responsibly. Land managers have a reciprocal duty to manage, use and conduct the ownership of land in a responsible way. Guidance on what does and does not constitute responsible behaviour is given in the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, produced by NatureScot.
There are some places where access rights don’t apply, and some activities are not covered by access rights.
Places where you can’t go include:
- Curtilages of buildings that are not houses (e.g. farmyards)
- With an occupied house, sufficient adjacent land to enable persons living there to have reasonable measures of privacy in the house to ensure that their enjoyment of the house is not unreasonably disturbed
- Private gardens in common ownership
- Land next to schools
- Land developed or set out as a sports or playing field or for a particular recreational purpose
- Land in which crops have been sown or are growing (but field margins are OK)
Activities that are excluded from access rights include:
- Hunting, shooting and fishing
- Being on land when responsible for a dog or other animal not under proper control
- Taking things away from the land for commercial purposes or for profit
- Being on land with a motorised vehicle (other than one constructed or adapted for use by a person who has a disability, being used by that person)
- Being on a golf course for recreation, although a right of passage is established
Just as there is more than one way to access the outdoors, there is more than one piece of legislation that affects outdoor access. NatureScot have produced a quick reference guide to the various powers and duties relevant to public outdoor access in Scotland.