Almost half of Dartmoor is owned by just 15 landowners, including unaccountable private interests in an area designated as a National Park. The UK is one of the most nature depleted countries and has extremely restrictive rights of access to land. Dartmoor is one of the few places where there is a right to roam, and the only area in England with a right to wild-camp. Yet this right is being challenged by private ownership and the biodiversity of the moor is in disarray from at best conflicting priorities and at worst environmental violence.
Materiality produced this map for bestselling author Guy Shrubsole to provide a portable and compelling way to explain the ownership and politics of Dartmoor. The owned areas are based on his research, overlaid with rights of access. Contours are used to both indicate access and retain a sense of the landscape of the moor.
Exhibited by Guy Shrubsole* during his Lie of the Land book tour.
*Guy Shrubsole is the author of Who Owns England, The Lost Rainforests of Britain, and The Lie of the Land. He has won the Wainwright Prize for conservation writing and the Sunday Times Science Book of the Year.
