It was something of a shock to learn that the Scottish Open Access Code was approved way back in 2005, having been preceded by the Land Reform Act (Scotland) in 2003.
Back in those days this sort of mattered to me as I was actively crawling all around Scotland (and had been for some years prior to that) hunting down the remains of Cold War sites and structures, some of which had survived, some of which had not. I had a big list of NGRs (national grid references) which had been recorded at the time they were still in use, although it seems those responsible were not quite as skilled at determining those NGRs as might have been expected. That said, it should not be forgotten that we are referring to the post-war years, when those references had to be evaluated by carrying out surveys using a compass, OS maps, and the MKl eyeball. Simply pressing a button on a GPS receiver was probably not even a glint in some inventor’s eye at that time.
I mention this simply to highlight the fact that back then, there was a load of legally significant information being placed online as there were numerous discussions underway regarding both the Land Reform Act, and the Open Access Code. Most of it seems to have been taken down now, or evaporated, as I can seldom, if ever, manage to locate any of the more interesting material, particularly the many legal references that were made as people debated the detail of those new rules.
One of my favourites was the oft repeated fallacy of there being ‘No law regarding trespass in Scotland’. Of course, there is, although it is DIFFERENT from that found in England.
One of the other examples that arose was the position regarding people entering your property, as in your garden, or the area around your house, known as the curtilage.
Assuming the material cited back then was correct, it seems there are no specific laws or offences that apply to such a scenario, and if, for example, someone decide to come into your nice garden and set up a picnic, then there’s no legal ruling you can call on to have them removed, including trespass. You could threaten them, or physically throw them out, but then you’d find there were laws that applied – to what YOU had done.
Bear in mind I’m referring to trespass as it would be legally recognised by a Scottish court, NOT what YOU might think trespass is, and it’s the court’s definition that matters, not yours.
This came to mind when I passed some signs I could barely read while I was out for a late night walk recently, and were found just a short distance from home.
It was dark, and between street lights, and the camera would barely even focus and allow the shutter to be fired, but I managed to find an angle that caught enough light.
I find it fascinating that some people apparently think it’s acceptable to cut through people’s property if it saves them walking along the street. This isn’t the only time I’ve come across signs like this that homeowners have felt the need to put up, the most recent being in Prestwick, where there’s a gate with something similar, trying to stop people cutting through a path behind a house, which means they don’t have to walk along the road to a corner, and can cut it out.
I’ll drop the pics of the signs here, without comment, since they’re so close to home.
Again, assuming the cases I saw being cited 20 years ago were correct, this sign is incorrect, as merely cutting across the grounds would NOT be trespass – in Scotland.
Secret Scotland 