Scottish Rights of Way and Access Society

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I’m Ken, the ScotWays Knowledge Base

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About Access Rights

33
  • #RespectProtectEnjoy
  • Rights of Way FAQ
  • What are Outdoor Access Rights?
  • Rights of Way
    • Development Proposals and Outdoor Access
    • Moving and Closing Paths
    • Path Maintenance
    • Private Signs, Private Roads, Public Roads, What’s the difference?
    • Rights of Access to Land
    • Rights of Way and Motor Vehicles
  • Statutory Access Rights
    • A Brief History of Access Rights
    • A local landowner has fenced off a path that is well used by local people, and has put up a sign saying No trespassers’. What can I do about it?
    • Are access rights different in Scotland from those in England and Wales?
    • Can I go wild camping in Scotland?
    • Horse riders are using a local path and churning it up so that it is difficult for walkers to use. What can be done?
    • Moving and Closing Paths
    • No Right of Access to Land in Scotland through the Scottish Outdoor Access Code
    • Path Maintenance
    • Private Signs, Private Roads, Public Roads, What’s the difference?
    • Right to Roam Timeline
    • Rights of Access to Land
    • Rights of Way and Motor Vehicles
    • Snares and traps in the Countryside
    • The Coming of Statutory Access Rights
    • The Scottish Outdoor Access Code, A Replacement for the Country Code
    • What activities are covered by rights of access?
    • What activities are not covered by rights of access?
    • What are core paths?
    • What does behaving responsibly mean?
    • What happens when there is a dispute about whether, or how, the rights of access apply?
    • What is a Local Access forum?
    • What is the National Access Forum?
    • Where do access rights not apply?
    • Who should I contact if I have a problem about access rights?

The Bookshelf

9
  • About The Bookshelf
  • Guidance on Legislation
  • Legislation
  • Responsible Access
  • Surveys of Rights of Way, Outdoor Access and Procedures
  • Rights of Way and Outdoor Access Management
    • Land Management
    • Path Management
    • People Management
    • Signposting and Interpretation

Court Cases

146
  • An outline of the Scottish Courts System
  • The Authority of Case Law
  • The complexity of the law
  • Cases under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003
    • Aviemore Highland Resort v Cairngorms National Park Authority
    • Caledonian Heritable Ltd v East Lothian Council
    • Creelman v Argyll & Bute Council
    • Forbes v Fife Council
    • Gloag v Perth & Kinross Council and the Rambler’s Association
    • Judicial Review: Petition of GREGORY BROWN for review of a decision by GLASGOW CITY COUNCIL (Cathkin Park, Glasgow)
    • Law Society of Scotland v Scottish Legal Complaints Commission
    • Renyana Stahl Anstalt v Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority Appeal Decision
    • Snowie v Stirling Council and Ramblers Association Lindsay and Barbara Ross v Stirling Council
    • Tuley v Highland Council
    • Williamson v Highland Activities Limited
  • Public rights of way and private servitude rights of way
    • Creation of public rights of way – need for public place end points
      • Cuthbertson v Young
      • Darrie v Drummond
      • Duncan v Lees
      • Jenkins v Murray
      • Lauder v MacColl
      • Leith-Buchanan v Hogg
      • Magistrates of Dunblane v Arnold-McCulloch
      • Marquis of Bute v McKirdy & McMillan
      • Melfort Pier Holidays Ltd v The Melfort Club and Others
      • Midlothian Council v Crolla
      • Oswald v Lawrie
      • Scott v Drummond
      • Smith v Saxton
      • Wood v North British Railway
    • Creation of public rights of way – use as of right by the public for the prescriptive period
      • Aberdeen City Council v Wanchoo and Neumann v Hutchison
      • Ayr Burgh Council v British Transport Commission
      • Burt v Barclay
      • Cadell v Stevenson
      • Cumbernauld & Kilsyth District Council v Dollar Land (Cumbernauld) Ltd
      • Duffield Morgan v Lord Advocate
      • Kinloch’s Trustees v Young
      • Magistrates of Elgin v Robertson
      • McGregor v Crieff Co-operative Society Ltd
      • McInroy v Duke of Athole
      • Norrie v Magistrates of Kirriemuir
      • Rhins District Committee of the County Council of Wigtownshire v Cunninghame
      • Richardson v Cromarty Petroleum Co Ltd
      • Rome v Hope Johnstone
      • Scottish Rights of Way & Recreation Society Ltd v Macpherson
      • Strathclyde (Hyndland) Housing Society Ltd v Cowie
      • Wills Trustees v Cairngorm Canoeing and Sailing School Ltd
      • Wilson v Jamieson
    • Creation of rights of way – interruption of the prescriptive period
      • Mann v Brodie
    • Different kinds of use of rights of way
      • Aberdeenshire Council v Lord Glentanar
      • Carstairs v Spence
      • Crawford v Lumsden
      • Macfarlane v Morrison & Others (Robertson’s Trustees)
      • Mackenzie v Bankes
      • Malcolm v Lloyd
    • Need for a particular line for public rights of way
      • Home Drummond & Another (Petitioners)
      • Hozier v Hawthorne
      • Mackintosh v Moir
    • Obstruction of rights of way
      • Aitchison v India Tyre & Rubber Co.
      • Anderson v Earl of Morton
      • Drury v McGarvie
      • Earl of Morton v Anderson
      • Fife Council v Nisbet
      • Geils v Thomson
      • Glasgow and Carlisle Road Trustees v Tennant
      • Glasgow and Carlisle Road Trustees v Whyte
      • Graham v Sharpe
      • Hay v Earl of Morton’s Trustees
      • Kirkpatrick v Murray
      • Lanarkshire Water Board v Gilchrist
      • Lord Donington v Mair
      • Macdonald v Watson
      • Midlothian District Council v MacKenzie
      • Rodgers v Harvie
      • Soriani v Cluckie
      • Stewart, Pott & Co. v Brown Brothers & Co
      • Sutherland v Thomson
    • Procedural issues
      • Alexander v Picken
      • Alston v Ross
      • Hope v Landward District Committee of the Parish Council of Inveresk
      • Macfie v Scottish Rights of Way and Recreation Society Limited
      • Nairn v Speedie
      • Potter v Hamilton
      • Torrie v Duke of Atholl
    • Public and private rights of way – ancillary rights and burdens
      • Allan v McLachlan
      • Lord Burton v Mackay
      • McRobert v Reid
      • Milne v Inveresk Parish Council
      • Moncrieff v Jamieson
      • Preston’s Trustees v Preston
    • Relationship of public rights of way with private servitude rights of way and with ‘roads’ under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984
      • Public rights of way and ‘roads’ under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984
        • Davidson v Earl of Fife
        • Hamilton v Dumfries & Galloway Council
        • Hamilton v Nairn
      • Relationship of public rights of way with private servitude rights of way
        • Alvis v Harrison
        • McGavin v McIntyre
        • Thomson v Murdoch
    • Rights of way – land owned by statutory undertakers or the Crown
      • Ayr Harbour Trustees v Oswald
      • British Transport v Westmoreland County Council
      • Edinburgh Corporation v North British Railway Co.
      • Ellice’s Trustees v Commissioners for the Caledonian Canal
      • Kinross County Council v Archibald
      • Lord Advocate v Strathclyde Regional Council and Lord Advocate v Dumbarton District Council
      • Oban Town Council v Callander & Oban Railway
      • The Ramblers Association v The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (and Others)
  • Navigation rights and rights in relation to the foreshore
    • Navigation rights
      • Campbell’s Trustees v Sweeney
      • Colquhoun’s Trustees v Orr Ewing & Co
      • Crown Estate Commissioners v Fairlie Yacht Slip Ltd.
      • Denaby and Cadeby Main Collieries Ltd v Anson
      • Ellerman Lines Ltd v Clyde Navigation Trustees
      • Kames Bay Case – Petition of the Crown Estate Commissioners
      • Walford v David
      • Wills Trustees v Cairngorm Canoeing and Sailing School Ltd
    • Rights in relation to the foreshore
      • Leith-Buchanan v Hogg
      • Marquis of Bute v McKirdy & McMillan
      • Officers of State v Smith
  • Liability
    • Cases relating to contributory negligence
      • Smith v Finch
    • Liability of recreational users to one another
      • Anthony Phee v James Gordon & Niddry Castle Golf Club 4 November 2011
      • Milne v Duguid
      • Pearson v Lightning
    • Occupiers’ liability: Cases involving ‘hazards’ in the outdoors
      • Anderson v The Scottish Ministers
      • Brown v South Lanarkshire Council
      • Duff v East Dunbartonshire Council
      • Fegan v Highland Regional Council
      • Graham v East of Scotland Water
      • Johnstone v Sweeney
      • Lang v Kerr Anderson & Co.
      • Marshall v North Ayrshire Council
      • McCluskey v Lord Advocate
      • Michael Leonard v The Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority
      • Prosecution by the Health & Safety Executive Dunoon Sheriff Court, 18th August 2010
      • Strachan v Highland Council
      • Tomlinson v Congleton Borough Council
      • Trueman v Aberdeenshire Council
      • Wright v Nevis Range Development Company
    • Occupiers’ liability: Cases involving children
      • Dawson v Scottish Power
      • Glasgow Corporation v Taylor
      • Jolley v Sutton London Borough Council
      • Stevenson v Glasgow Corporation
    • Occupiers’ liability: Cases involving facilities/indoor premises
      • McCondichie v Mains Medical Centre
      • Poppleton v Peter Ashley Activities Centre
      • Porter v Borders Council
    • Cases involving animals
      • Gardiner v Miller
      • Shirley McKaskie v John Cameron
      • Welsh v Brady
  • Other cases of interest
    • Carol Rohan Beyts v Trump International Golf Club Scotland Limited
    • Law Society of Scotland v Scottish Legal Complaints Commission
    • Neizer v Rhodes
    • R v Howard

Heritage Paths

18
  • Heritage Paths Introduction
  • Historic Footpaths
  • The Launch of the Heritage Paths website
  • About Types of Heritage Paths
    • Coffin Roads
    • Drove Roads
    • Fish Roads
    • Heritage Paths Introduction
    • Leisure Paths
    • Medieval Roads
    • Military Roads
    • Pilgrimage Routes
    • Postie Paths
    • Public works and private enterprise: moving towards the modern transport system
    • Religious Routes
    • Roman Roads
    • Salters’ Roads
    • Trade Routes
    • Traveller Routes

History

36
  • Historic Footpaths
  • The Launch of the Heritage Paths website
  • History of Access
    • A Brief History of Access Rights
    • Boardwalks, the oldest types of constructed path
    • Right to Roam Timeline
    • The Bedford Memorial Bridge
    • The Coming of Statutory Access Rights
    • The Scottish Outdoor Access Code, A Replacement for the Country Code
    • What is the National Access Forum?
  • History of ScotWays
    • 175th Anniversary
    • 1844 The beginning of ScotWays
    • Scottish Hill Tracks – the 100+ year story
    • The Association for the Protection of Public Rights of Roadway in and Around Edinburgh
    • The Bedford Memorial Bridge
    • The History of ScotWays
    • Welcome the Scottish Rights of Way and Recreation Society Limited
    • What’s in a name?
    • You are invited to the opening of the Rev A. E. Robertson Memorial Bridge
  • Important People of Scottish Access
    • Adam Black (1784-1874)
    • Archibald Eneas Robertson (1870-1958)
    • Arthur W Russell (1873-1967)
    • Donald Bennet (1928-2013)
    • Donald Grant Moir  (1902-1986)
    • John George Bartholomew (1860-1920)
    • John Hutton Balfour (1808-1884)
    • Professor Sir Robert (Bob) Grieve (1910 -1995)
    • Rennie McOwan (1933-2018)
    • Tom Weir (1914-2006)
    • Viscount James Bryce (1838-1922)
    • Walter Arthur Smith (1852-1934)
    • William Ferris (1894-1963)
  • Signposting
    • 1964 When figure 740 changed the face of path signs
    • A Signposting Tour of the Cairngorms
    • ScotWays’s Oldest Standing Signpost
    • The Changing Face of ScotWays Signs
    • The First ScotWays Signposts

Scottish Hill Tracks

2
  • Scottish Hill Tracks – the 100+ year story
  • Scottish Hill Tracks Updates
  • Home
  • Ask Ken
  • History
  • History of ScotWays
  • The Association for the Protection of Public Rights of Roadway in and Around Edinburgh
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The Association for the Protection of Public Rights of Roadway in and Around Edinburgh

The Beginning.

It’s Victorian Britain.  Queen Victoria has just ascended to the throne, Charles Darwin is yet to write his masterpiece Origin of Species, Charles Dickens has just created our Christmas with his book “A Christmas Carol” (though Santa Claus has yet to appear), Christmas cards have just been created and the Highland Clearances are coming to an end.

1844, in the City Chambers, Edinburgh there’s a rumbling about paths being blocked and there being nobody to do anything about it. Lord Provost Adam Black was concerned that some local landowners were encroaching on (reducing in width or blocking) public roads and other people would be doing the same unless something was done to stop them.  

The Lord Provost called a meeting on 18 November 1844 at the Council Chambers, Edinburgh. Over 31 people attended with Councillors, Baillies, Advocates and more.  The purpose of the meeting was to consider the “expedience of calling a public meeting for the formation of an association to protect the public’s right of access.” All present agreed to this.  

The committee established to organise the public meeting included the Lord Provost (Adam Black), Baillie Gray, Baron Baillie Hill, Baillie Duncan, Professor More, Mr Hunter, Mr Logan, Mr Douglas, Mr Malerlin, Mr Christie, Dean of Guild, Mr Morton, Treasurer Gibson, Mr Thomson, Mr Grieve, Mr Robertson, Mr Stoddart. The Lord Provost would act as the convenor and Baillie Duncan as Secretary.

This steering group held five meetings prior to the original suggested public meeting.  One of the first actions taken was to create a constitution which was submitted to a Mr Rutherford (lawyer) for his opinion.  He felt that it was sound, but that any court action would see all office bearers and members being held potentially liable for costs.

At their meeting of 28 March 1845, the steering group agreed to not to start any legal action until a guarantee fund was established.

The Association is Born

3 April 1845.  The Public meeting is held in the Saloon of the Royal Hotel, Princes Street, Edinburgh.  Although the original hotel is now demolished, it stood next to Jenners on the site now occupied by the Mercure Mount Royal Hotel.

The meeting listened to Adam Black’s case and agreed unanimously to the setting up of the “Association for the Protection of Public Rights of Roadway In and Around Edinburgh”.  From the start, it was a membership organisation and the initial subscription 10 shillings. 

The Association’s purpose was set down as “… to preserve or recover for the public use such legal rights of way as are in danger of being interrupted or of being permanently lost to the public in consequent of interruptions already in existence.”

A massive 34 Directors were appointed.

President – The Right Honourable Lord Provost of Edinburgh (Adam Black)
Vice Presidents – 
Sir Thomas Dick Lauder Bart.
Mr Gibson Craig, MP
James Gray, Magistrate

Directors

Robert Grieve, Master of the Merchant Company
William Dick, Dean of Guild
J Gibson Thomas, Treasurer of the City
JH Macfarlane, Member of Town Council
John Neill, Member of Town Council
John Ritchie, Member of Town Council
John Dick, Member of Town Council
CR Tait, Member of Town Council
Robert Bryson
Robert Chambers, Publisher
Robert Christie
Keri Crichton SSC
Alexander Allpelton(?) Merchant
Alexander Cowan, Papermaker
Alexander Douglas, MP
Peter Forbes, Wine Merchant
DR Hay
William Law, Merchant
Alexander Locarno, Advocate
John Lothian
Andrew Melrose, Merchant
Charles Morton, MP
Patrick Hill LLD
John Redpath, Merchant
Ralph Richardson, Merchant
JR Stoddart, MP
William Lair, Publisher
Archibald Thomson, Merchant

Treasurer

Mr Robertson

Secretary

William Duncan SSC

It’s fascinating to see the jobs of some of those original directors and how notable they were such as Robert Chambers, Scottish publisher, geologist, evolutionary thinker, author and journal editor!

The end of the Association for the Protection of Public Rights of Roadway in Scotland

Since January 1884 there had been talk of transforming the Association as a new, limited, company, the Scottish Rights of Way and Recreation Society. On 4 April 1884, the Association passed all its remaining funds to the new Society at its meeting held at the Dowells Rooms, George Street, Edinburgh. The final Directors at the meeting were:

Adam Black (President)
Messrs Bartholomew
WA Smith
Symington Grieve
JR Findlay
W Mitchell
Peter Bod

Amongst the Directors present at that last meeting was W A Smith, author of Hill Paths in Scotland, and the Bartholomew family of cartographic fame, who were to have a long association with ScotWays. Adam Black, son of the Lord Provost Adam Black who started the Association, was also present.

For the past 40 years the Association had done a lot including fighting the successful battle for Glen Tilt.  The Glasgow Weekly Herald (May 20 1884) reported Lord Cockburn as writing in his journal for 1845 when the old Association was formed “This Society will do some good, but it is 50 years too late.  When I was a boy nearly the whole vicinity of Edinburgh was open.”

Adam Black, Outdoor Access History, ScotWays History, Scotways175
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Updated on 5 March 2025
175th Anniversary

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The Scottish Rights of Way & Access Society. Upholding Public Access.
Registered Office: 24 Annandale Street, Edinburgh, EH7 4AN. Tel: 0131 558 1222.
A company limited by guarantee, registered in Scotland. Company number 24243.
Scottish Charity number SC015460.
VAT registration number 221 6132 56.
©2000-
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