Open Country is a designation used for some UK access land.
It was first defined under the 1949 National Parks Act (and extended by the 1968 Countryside Act), and was land over which an appropriate access agreement had been made. In particular significant upland areas of the northern Peak District, where there had been much dispute over access prior to World War II, were so designated (see Mass trespass of Kinder Scout).
The term is also used in the 2000 CRoW Act to describe 'areas of mountain, moor, heath and down' that are generally available for access under that Act. (It appears that the rights conferred by this new definition are in general less comprehensive than those conferred under the 1949 Act, but will apply to a wider area.)
The Countryside Agency's publication 'Managing Public Access' appears to envisage that most land originally designated under the 1949 Act will in due course receive redesignation under the CRoW Act, as the original access agreements lapse.
Famous quotes containing the words open and/or country:
“What is reality?
I am a plaster doll; I pose
with eyes that cut open without landfall or nightfall
upon some shellacked and grinning person,
eyes that open, blue, steel, and close.
Am I approximately an I. Magnin transplant?”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really seem to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go someplace else to make it. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)