THE Duke of Devonshire said yesterday that there was no reason why the new right to roam laws should not work.
Peregrine Cavendish, 58, who inherited the dukedom four months ago, spoke out to quell tensions among landowners and farmers on the issue.
He has taken on the family tradition of being friendly to ramblers — an association of 70 years, since his great-grandfather’s gamekeepers became involved in clashes with ramblers in a mass trespass over Kinder Scout in the Peak District. The 12th Duke said the new law was important and “will help to bridge the divide between town and country”.
His home is Bolton Abbey and its 12,500 acres of moorland in North Yorkshire — though he is also now master of Chatsworth with its 5,000- acre park. He said: “It’s taken 70 years for these laws. But my father in 1928 established the equivalent of the right to roam on the Bolton Abbey moorland. The agreement was that local people could walk there wherever they liked, and that was really a brilliant thing to do and it has worked well. I think the new laws are brilliant too. Rambling is a very pleasant thing to do.”
The Duke was concerned, however, about dog walkers. “That is a real concern for lambs, livestock and for nesting birds. Dogs really are more intrusive than humans and they are more frightening to farm animals. That really must be understood.”
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He was also concerned about night walkers: “If you live in a remote place and there are strangers passing at night, then people may be worried. They will have legitimate concerns and they may have to ask potential miscreants why they are there.”
The Duke also appealed to the Government to think again about imposing a hunting ban. He said: “I don’t hunt but I absolutely defend the right of people to do so.”
He is keeping his own counsel over whether he will allow illegal hunting on his land in the event of a ban.
“I don’t believe in breaking the law because you don’t like it. We have not got a ban and we will cross that bridge if we ever come to it.”
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