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Walking and the Right to Roam

National trails, the Coast to Coast and the legal right to walk on open countryside.

Walking is one of the most popular leisure activities in Britain. The country has a long-established network of public footpaths, bridleways and rights of way. Long-distance "national trails" include the Pennine Way (1965, the first national trail), the South West Coast Path, Hadrian's Wall Path and the Coast to Coast walk across northern England.

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In 2000 the Countryside and Rights of Way Act gave the public a right of access on foot to large areas of open countryside in England and Wales — moorland, heath, downland and registered common land — known informally as the "right to roam". Scotland has even more extensive access rights under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.

You may be asked the name of the famous long-distance northern trail (the Pennine Way), or what the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 introduced.

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