Your rights of way off road ..
Including terminology

Cyclists are allowed to cycle on bridleways, restricted byways, byways open to all traffic (BOATs), and permissive routes. You can also use the National Cycle Network, a series of surfaced off-road routes built and managed by Sustrans.

 

While cyclists are free to roam over most of Scotland's countryside, so long as they abide by the guidelines in the Access Code, it is not permitted to enter buildings, private gardens, or to cross fields with growing crops in them.

Full details of the Scottish Access Code, in handy leaflet format, can be found here.

Ireland on the other hand, is extremely complicated!

For more information, please click here

Right of way

There is a distinction in Irish law between public and private rights of way. A public right of way is a person's right of passage along a road or path, even if the road or path is not in public ownership. A private right of way is the right to enter onto private lands, but only for the purposes of gaining access to or exiting from another piece of land.

The rights of walkers and ramblers are specified in the Occupiers' Liability Act 1995, which includes "recreational user" as a category of users of privately-owned lands. Under the Act, a recreational user is a person present on the premises or land of a private citizen, without charge (other than a reasonable charge for parking facilities) for the purposes of engaging in a recreational activity. Under these circumstances, the owner of the land is obliged only to not intentionally injure or harm the recreational user or act with reckless disregard for the recreational user's welfare. This is an important distinction because it removes previous insurance liability concerns, which still apply to an invited visitor onto private land.

Extinguishing public rights of way

Under the Roads Act 1993, it is the responsibility of local authorities around Ireland to protect the public's right to access public rights of way in each local authority area.

However, under the Planning and Development Act 2000, the owner of private land can apply to his or her local authority to have the public right of way removed from a part of his of her land. Typically, this would occur if the owner wished to develop his or her property in a way that would affect access to it by the public. In these circumstances, the local authority has the power to recover the costs involved with closing a part of land off from public access from the landowner.

Before a public right of way can be removed, the local authority is required to place a notice on the land detailing the proposed extinguishment of the right of way and must also place advertisements in local newspapers publicising the proposed change for at least 14 days. Both the notice and the advertisements must give details of where and when the proposed changes will take place and give leave for citizens to appeal the extinguishment in writing. The local authority may choose to give a person opposing the change an oral hearing. The local authority reserves the right of judgement over appeals to extinguishments of public rights of way, however, it must publish the decision to extinguish the public right of way as soon as it has been decided to do so and must also inform any persons who objected in writing to notify them of the its decision.

Respecting private landowners' property

Although it is not a legal requirement, walking, rambling and mountaineering associations all advise their members and members of the public to take due care when availing of their right to use private land for recreational purposes. . The conservation of the local environment and avoiding causing disturbance to on-site activities such as farming should be considered by all walkers and visitors to the countryside. Copies of an agreed Country Code are available from the Irish Farmers association.

Section 24 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2002 added new rules governing criminal trespass to the Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994. It is now a criminal offence for anyone to enter, occupy or bring anything onto privately owned land or land owned by local authorities if that act is likely to

If a landowner believes that someone is illegally occupying his or her land to the extent of committing one of the above offences, he or she should inform the Garda Siochana. The Garda Siochana are then empowered to visit the land, and if they find any person on the land, they can demand that the person gives them his or her name and address and that he or she removes himself/herself and any objects under his or her control from the land. If the person refuses to comply with a Garda's directions, that person is liable to prosecution. A person who is convicted of one of these criminal trespass offences is liable to a fine of up to 3,000 euro, one month's imprisonment or both. If a person does not co-operate with the Garda Siochana when asked to leave the land, any objects brought upon the land can be seized and stored by the Garda Siochana. These objects can be subsequently sold or disposed of by the Garda Siochana if the owner of the objects does not reply in writing to an official notice that the object has been seized within one month of receiving that notice. The person must also agree to pay the Garda Siochana for any reasonable expense incurred as a result of seizing and storing the object before being allowed to reclaim it. Contact information for Garda stations throughout Ireland is available here.

DISCLAIMER:  Whilst every reasonable care has been taken to ensure accuracy of information provided on both this page and website, we cannot be held responsible for any errors in or omissions from the given text - you must accept all responsibility for using and/or acting upon that information which is given in good faith and, as far as is possible, up to date and correct.