Understanding Public Rights of Way in England and Wales

The Sign That Tells You Everything

Stand at almost any gateway in England and Wales and you will find a small disc, a painted arrow or a weathered fingerpost. Those few inches of plastic and paint carry more legal weight than most walkers realise. They tell you whether you are on a public footpath, a bridleway or a byway, and each class comes with its own rules about who may use it and what you may do while you are there.

Learning the colours takes about ten minutes and pays off for decades of walking. It also keeps you on the right side of the people who farm the land you are crossing, which is almost always the pleasanter way to spend an afternoon.

The Four Classes of Public Right of Way

Public rights of way in England and Wales are highways in law, recorded on a definitive map kept by the local highway authority — usually a county council or a unitary authority. There are four classes, ranked by who is entitled to use them.

• Footpath — marked with a yellow arrow. Walking only. No horses, no bicycles, no vehicles. Pushchairs and mobility scooters are usually fine in practice, though a stile can end the conversation.
• Bridleway — marked with a blue arrow. Walking, horse riding and cycling. Cyclists must give way to walkers and riders, and it is good manners to slow down and pass the time of day.
• Restricted byway — marked with a purple arrow. Walking, riding, cycling and horse-drawn vehicles, but no motor vehicles.
• Byway open to all traffic — marked with a red arrow. Open in theory to everything, including cars and motorbikes, though many are little more than muddy tracks and are used almost entirely on foot.

That is the whole system in four lines. Confusion usually arises because a bridleway can look exactly like a footpath, and a byway can look like a farm track. The arrow colour is the giveaway.

What the Right Actually Lets You Do

A right of way gives you the right to pass along it, and that is all. You may stop to rest, admire a view or eat a sandwich, but you cannot wander into the field beside you, however tempting the grass looks. Crops are someone's living, and trampled wheat is a genuine grievance.

On a footpath you go on foot, with or without a dog. On a bridleway you may also ride a horse or push a bicycle; the surface is often rougher and the gates wider. Byways may carry vehicles, but if you meet a four-by-four in a muddy lane, standing to one side and exchanging a nod costs nothing.

Dogs should be under close control everywhere, and on a lead anywhere near livestock. On open access land — the areas mapped for wandering off-path, mostly in the hills and moors — dogs must be on a short, fixed lead between 1 March and 31 July to protect ground-nesting birds and lambs.

Waymarkers, Fingerposts and the Definitive Map

Local authorities are responsible for signposting where a right of way leaves a metalled road, and many add waymark discs along the route. Wooden fingerposts often name the next hamlet and give a distance in miles. Long-distance National Trails use the acorn symbol, and those paths are waymarked consistently over many days of walking.

Here is the reassuring part: the right of way exists whether or not anyone has got round to painting an arrow. Signage is a helpful indicator, not the source of the right. If a marker has fallen off or a stile has been replaced by a gate with no disc, the path is still there in law. Every highway authority publishes its definitive map online, so you can check the exact line before you set out.

Gates, Livestock and Meeting Landowners

Close every gate behind you unless it is clearly tied or propped open. If you are walking with a group, the last person through shuts it. Stiles and kissing gates exist so that walkers can pass without letting stock out, and they are maintained by the landowner or the council.

A few practical points worth carrying in your head:

• Give cattle plenty of room, especially cows with calves. Walk quietly, do not run, and let dogs off the lead if you feel threatened — a dog on a lead cannot get away.
• Bulls of recognised dairy breeds should not be kept in fields crossed by a right of way, and any other bull over ten months old must be running with cows or heifers.
• Horses can be startled by rucksacks, umbrellas and flapping coats. Step to the inside of the path and stand still while they pass.
• If you do meet a farmer, a cheerful "morning" and a mention of which path you are on defuses almost everything.

If a Path Is Blocked

Obstructing a public right of way is an offence, and so is failing to reinstate one that has been ploughed. A path across a field must be restored within fourteen days of ploughing, or within twenty-four hours if it runs along the field edge. Crops and hedges should never be allowed to smother the line so badly that you cannot get through.

When something is wrong, note the grid reference or a clear description, take a photograph, and report it to the rights of way officer at the local highway authority. They are usually pleased to hear from walkers, because a path that nobody complains about is a path that quietly disappears. Temporary closures, diversions and building works should always be advertised on site with a notice giving the dates.

Know the colours, read the map, shut the gate. That is the whole craft of it, and it will serve you well on every lane, ridge and riverbank from Cornwall to Cumbria.