Uncommon Ground: Rethinking our relationship with the countryside
Wednesday 9th April 2025 at 7pm
Ropetackle Arts Centre
In Uncommon Ground, Patrick Galbraith takes us on an extraordinary tour of rural Britain, from the Western Isles to Dorset, and from the Norman Conquest to the present day, to uncover the truth. Along the way he meets salmon poachers, landowners, foxhunters, and activists calling for a total abolition of the right to own land. And he spends time with politicians, historians and conservationists, many of whom have mixed feelings about the contemporary access campaign. He also, in order to understand our deep-rooted spiritual connections with the land, heads out with naturists, Travellers and magic mushroom pickers.
What Patrick finds is that the 128,000 miles of formal public footpaths and the 3.6 million acres of access land, give the public the right to visit vast swathes of England and Wales. If laid out in a straight line, our footpath system would be the equivalent of walking round the globe six times. He also discovers the reality of the Scottish situation, where a right to roam has been introduced and where almost-extinct birds like the capercaillie are suffering because of public access. There are also, he learns, immense problems in Scotland with wild camping. His journey reveals that everyone involved in the countryside is clear that access to the land and nature is critical. But access is restricted by issues of diversity, a lack of knowledge and even our transport system, rather than people being locked out.
This is a book that argues that what matters is how we engage with the land and demands more opportunities to do so, but it also calls for us to do so in balance with nature, rather than misguidedly throwing open every acre to the detriment of the natural world.