Americans React to UK Footpaths and the Public Right of Way

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In this video we react to UK footpaths and the concept of public right of way. There are over 140,000 miles of UK footpaths, bridleways and scenic trails criss crossing throughout Great Britain. One of the really unique things about UK footpaths is that so many of these trails go through private lands. These public right of ways give access to nature that would otherwise not be available to so many people. Some of these footpaths are ancient and I can only imagine just how incredible it is to explore the beautiful countryside by walking these trails.

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👉 Original Video by Robert John Kerr:

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode

👉 Find the Uk Footpath Map at:
https://footpathmap.co.uk/

Don’t Stop Believing wo whoo we are back guys I’m sure you can hear it in my voice that I’m not 100% yet um how are you feeling maybe like 75 and it’s only the voice not I mean physically everything else I’m fine right me too I think I’m probably about

80% um I was really trying to get to 90% plus uh from my voice being back to normal but unfortunately it’s just taking so long and honestly for the majority of this time we haven’t been making videos um we felt fine energy-wise we haven’t really been sick

Except for a few days at the very beginning um it’s just the voice we just had laryngitis and I don’t know why it’s taking so long but I’ve heard that laryngitis can take a few weeks to fully resolve so um I’m guessing that we’re just on the tail end of that hopefully

Within the next week or so we’ll be completely back to normal but guys we missed you and we were just ready to get back into this uh miss learning about everything about the UK and Ireland missed you guys in general and uh hope you’re well yeah definitely I know

Around here and back in North Carolina taught of my mom a lot of people have got something going on um so it just seems to be some uh some crazy sicknesses or viruses or whatever going on around here but yeah um but today we are going to be learning about public

Footpaths British public footpaths the public right away um I did a video about British foot paths I don’t know it’s been a while maybe I don’t know six seven months ago I’m guessing I don’t know for sure but you don’t really know anything about British foot paths it’s a

Really interesting thing um basically in a nutshell because you know here in the US we have a lot of public lands because it’s there’s so much land right in the UK they obviously it’s a smaller piece of land so more of that land is owned privately but they basically private land owners are

Required by law to to keep path foot old foot paths through their land clear still paths that have already been established that they happen to own the land on right and I’m not really sure if if like I don’t think you have to like necessarily build new foot paths I think

These are like old Roman foot paths and so forth and so on um you know I really haven’t looked into it really deeply Beyond when I was checking on that video and learn the basics um but supposedly they’re everywhere and um I got found this video I thought this would be

Interesting cuz i’ I’ve seen a different video about this I wanted to see something new with you and um I actually have uh a website that shows a map of the different British foot paths um that I want to check out with you as well

Yeah and so um I don’t know what you’d like to start with would you rather start with this video or let’s start with a video cuz otherwise I might not get as much out of the map if I don’t okay and and what one of the reasons I

Wanted to check this particular video out is because it talks about use it or lose it and I’m wondering because from what I understand by law private land owners have to keep up these old foot paths they have to they have to not impede on those foot paths like you

Might be basically uh you in the UK you might be walking a foot path through someone’s field they’re growing stuff on um or you know probably through maybe even through their backyard in some cases I don’t really know yeah but obviously that’s very different here you

Cannot go on private land here yeah like you said they have a lot less land in the UK so I kind of understand but for me I value privacy so it would feel really strange to me to be like out in my yard or field and like people come it

Would just be kind of unnerving but it is a different it is a different culture it’s something that you know when you buy a piece of land if it’s got a foot path on it you’re probably to do this so yeah that’s true you would know a Hadad

Of so the same here you know like and I get it like if if you do have limited land you’re going like let’s say you know you don’t have as much national parks and state parks surrounding you um like we can go not very far and be in

State par yeah like it’s pretty easil easy to access but if you’re in an area without as much of that it would be very important to have nature walks yeah you know there’s nothing like a really good train um they call them foot path I don’t know

If they use the word Trail like hiking trail yeah like I’m guessing they do use that term but um I I don’t think we generally use the term foot path here that I know of but uh yeah guys let’s go and jump in and check this out hello and

Welcome to my channel hope you’re all feeling strong and well we are in Deanwood an ancient wood near where I live of course so yeah it’s a circular route that I’ve created on the Maps using the Ordinance survey Maps but there is something wrong with the

Circular route at one part of it as you will see we come to a road that says no public right of way it’s really beautiful though so that is of course what we are talking about today in this Vlog public right of way and when you think about it there’s lots

Of people that aren’t lucky enough to have a garden at all so it’s really important that people have access to the countryside yeah absolutely uh one thing I wanted to ask about uh in the comments guys let me know like he said this is an ancient Woodlands right um but I noticed

That most of the trees are fairly small like you know the trees we were seeing they aren’t type of tre that’s what I’m wondering is what’s the majority of the trees what what are they they don’t look like large Oaks or anything there this looks so peaceful though it does the

Bubbling brook and the the stone I love the stone walls and stuff yeah you know we don’t see a lot of this here in the US you know I I do appreciate that look and these Wide Open Spaces especially in a climate like this when

All we can actually do is go for a walk to uh save our sanity people need to be able to enjoy the countryside just like I am today and uh it’s a thing that uh I might even take for granted I don’t think I do I enjoy it every time as you

Can see and Hope you’re enjoying this too this little look around the countryside but yeah people do take it for granted Farmers may take it for granted as part of their daily life still no public RightWay okay so like I’m not exactly sure what we’re looking at here because from what I

Understand by law I I’ve been told this at least by law they have to keep up these foot paths or at very least don’t impede on them right and so to say are what we looking at here private land owners that are basically like you’re not coming through my land is that what

We’re looking at here this looks like a road though no this yeah this does look or maybe it’s a driveway of some sort it does kind of look like a one lane road though this is I’ve told you about this man like these beautiful stone walls man

That seem to be like dotted everywhere throughout the countryside in England specifically it’s beautiful I really like it private property no public RightWay I’m guessing he’s going to get into this about exactly what this means because this is a little different than what I’ve been picturing in my head like

I didn’t even think this was allowed to actually say no P right away on like I don’t in in Scotland they have something called like is it uh right to right to Rome please what it’s called and you can basically roam anywhere pretty much wow and I’ve heard that there’s something

Similar in England I don’t know about Welles um but uh this is something we’re going to have to look into or maybe you’ll explain it a little bit more so you could see back there that sign that I came across and I’ve come across it a couple of times and actually

Gone the other way which is along the Road and it’s really boring and a boring Hall up the road and there’s no real path there to get on to as a pedestrian but when I looked into it there is actually public right of way through

Here and you saw me just get to that style there and through this field and the fields Beyond in fact I shall do another little time lapse of this public right of way through these few Fields use it or lose it now I think I get what

You’re saying now like these might be public right away that have been used so little by the public that the pathways almost disappeared and so the farmers are just like we’re we’re putting up a we’re putting up a you know you can’t come through anymore you know maybe that’s

What they saying no if you don’t use it they disappear but which came first the sign or the not being used true yeah true I’d be curious to know that too and there isn’t actually a path I mean fair enough the farmer uh May plow this field up this field might get

Plowed up quite regular but um I can sort of tell that no one is walking this way and it’s because they believe they can’t and that’s a real shame and I think if we don’t uh if we don’t exercise our right our public right of way um then we’ll lose it these public

Rights of way have been here for hundreds of years and they will always remain so I will take you through in a moment but I just want to say say that I think you’ll agree that it’s important that um I’m going to start walking I think it’s important that uh

The youngsters get out into the countryside and uh be able to understand nature and where their food comes from see the uh farm animals and they will see that if they can take these public rights of way through Fields like this and uh respect the country

Code and uh and we’ll all be happy it’s very important so as you can see this field there is no path through but there is a path I will show you on the map as I’m walking through so uh you can see there that uh that’s where that sign was

On the map and you can see that it’s marked in green green dotted line on the Ordinance survey map and that is public right of way and you can see it goes all the way through these fields diagonally across most of these fields and and that’s the diagonal path that I’m taking

That is crazy I mean like think about like we don’t have anything like that here no and it makes sense like we have more land Bureau of Land Management like land that is that is pure public land nobody owns that land this is this is yeah that’s true this is this is a

Farmer’s land that had that but like he said I I I get I get it if you bought this land knowing there’s a public right away true would know then there you go like you but you got to wonder like so if he’s put up like no Pro private or

What what it say no uh public RightWay something like that yeah you got to wonder what the farmer thinks when all a sudden some dude starts walking he’s like well I’m sure he doesn’t like it if he’s putting up signs right it’s a very interesting thing cuz it’s it’s it’s

Completely foreign to us cuz like there’s no way you can just there’s no like walking across someone’s private land I personally wouldn’t want to buy land with f on it because I just like I said I like my privacy but if you did buy it no one right away you would need

To respect the fact that these are trails that are hundreds of years old and in some cases old Roman trails that maybe a thousand plus years old you know what I mean so it just depends on like if you know it’s already there when you buy it I mean it is interesting because

You could you could never back out of it your land would forever have this through there as long as it was in law that yeah yeah yeah ourselves out into the fresh air into the countryside away from the hustle and bustle and so the uh public right of way

Network is vitally important for that to get your youngsters out there appreciating the countryside and like I say just seeing where their food comes from uh that’s really important as well and the public rights of way network plays a massive part in that so make sure you check your maps and uh

Don’t just take it for granted if you’ve if you’ve made a circular walk or something like that you may you’ve plotted a a route at home um then you can see that you have the public right of way it’s the green dotted uh marks on your Ordinance survey map so yeah it’s

Really important to check your map and then if you see one of them signs you can just ignore it like I did and walk straight through great satisfaction walking past that sign I was really hoping someone would come out where you going all right guys this is interesting

Yeah so this is something I didn’t know about previously on the British foot pass that there is this actual us it or L it thing going on where where certain land owners that supposedly supposed to not impede on the public right away are impeding on the public right away and uh

That that’s obviously not allowed that’s not good I mean because right like when you when you live in an area where there’s not as much National Park state parks and stuff like that you need something like this and that’s why they they they have this by law because

Without this there would you know a lot of people that don’t have yards or don’t have uh you know they live in apartments or whatever they don’t have access to Nature and so this Mak sure that people have access to Nature that’s true and one thing I’m wondering now

I know the road system in the UK is a lot different than here ours is like more grid and spread out and we have sidewalks that we can easily walk well they have they have more sidewalks than us they’re more walkable than us I was wondering if the roads were narrow they

Didn’t have sidewalks I don’t know uh well their roads are more narrow um obviously depending on where you’re at but uh the roads tend to be more narrow because you know they’re on a large island and so they the countryside but I guess here in the country we don’t have

I I haven’t really I’ve looked a little bit at that and I’ve seen some a little bit of driving on the country roads I love the driving topic it’s one of my favorite topics is so different than it is here and that’s something you really haven’t looked into that you’ll need to

Look into with me at some point but um yeah from what I understand what I’ve seen the roads in the country H seem to be very narrow like like if you’re driving along and other car is coming a lot of times you’ll have to like get over on

Wondering like for people to pass well for people to walk though like here feel like you could walk along the road it’s not as safe if there’s no sidewalk but I think there are very uh yeah less room to walk in the countryside but more room to walk in cities where they have

Sidewalks and stuff I think I think it’s easier to walk in the country along the road here and I think it’s harder to walk in the city or towns here they’re they tend to be very walkable towns and stuff there but um I think we’re going

To go ahead and check out this map all right so foot PATH map um 140,000 miles of foot paths in the UK wow that is insane I didn’t know was that many I I I knew that that that the foot paths crossed back and forth across the country like uh through fields and

Everything but I know 140,000 miles think about the size of the island of Great Britain for example right yeah I was just think about that I mean 140,000 Mi of criss cross foot pass that’s a lot 20,000 Mi of what are Bridal WS that’s what I what is a briway I’ve never heard

Of that briway miles of national cycle 16,000 miles per bikers I guess that’s cool so mil brightways we’re got to look at what a Brightway is I’ve never heard of that um VI to 6700 square miles of English and Welsh land mapped as Open Country a registered common land allowing free

Rambling across it so so in England and Welles 6700 square miles of just land you can just free access ramble wow that’s pretty cool holy wow all the red wow I think yeah foot paths briway byways the red how do you just foot path I want to see just foot path

I don’t know you can’t okay there’s National trip wow dude that is crazy that is insane so that is the 140,000 miles we looked at this map yeah that put that can’t be right is that really right it’s got to be look at this wow that’s insane let’s see let’s go to

To um I see where do we want to go you know the interesting thing is look up here in Scotland M there’s a lot less through through I wonder if it’s because it’s a lot colder up there so maybe places that don’t have them aren’t really inhabited here here’s the

Interesting thing they have it on the aisle of man look at that oh yeah but they don’t have it in Northern Ireland for some reason does does even though Northern Ireland is part of the UK are they not part of the uh foot path system but this this is surprising to me

Right here like cuz think about it you got it up here this more there like rougher terrains where you wouldn’t really hold on oh I can’t see the right to Ram maybe you know Scotland does have a huge right to Rome thing so maybe that’s why it’s just but look at look at

England and Welles dude that’s insane man I just want to okay hold on I man look at that wow you can walk clear across the AL man wow look at that dude that is insane oh the blue the red is the foot path I think and the well maybe the red

And the pink are the foot paths and then I don’t know we know up what a briway was so I don’t know I think this might be considered briway but um we’ll have to look that up wow guys this is incredible I wonder how often do you use these foot

Baths do you guys go on them very much and if you do what’s your favorite one do they have names like how do you okay I think I think they do like certain Trails yeah yeah um we’re going to when we visit UK I think it’d be fun

To like go on a couple of the short ones obviously we can go on very long ones um but uh yeah that’s really cool I mean because some of these look pretty short they just like they’re just do like look mean like it’s just like just go for a

Nice little like that’s really cool um because like no matter where you live at like look at this no matter where you live at outside your door is probably some sort of nature trail like really yeah that’s really cool unless you’re in London can you imagine trying to okay

Someone someone out there’s probably got this goal I’m going to go and I’m going to I’m going to go hiking on every single foot path I mean that would literally be impossible that’s your entire life that would be impossible that’ be really cool all right guys so uh this is pretty

Insane again look at this ready boop boop hold on Coastal path oh go from coast to co ah cool look at this suround is that Cornwall down there look at that around oh I love that wow I feel like we’ve got some books about that don’t we yeah wow this is

Really cool okay I have one more question if you’re a land owner in England or Wales and you own land with these footpaths on them how do you feel about it do you like having them there do you get to meet people true kind of cool um or do you

Not like it yeah I think it depends on how I think it would probably a lot would pend on how much land you had because if you got if you got if you got a foot path going through one section but but you’re you’ve got so much land

You got plenty of privacy anyway then probably wouldn’t be as big a deal all right so we got Bridal path I think that’s a oh yeah Bridal way also brid equestrian Trail Bridal okay that makes sense okay so so that means that you got certain areas that are for just foot

Paths certain areas that are ride horses on and certain areas that are for biking yeah all right that makes a lot of sense all right like that is cool all right guys I just wanted to look up real quick a little bit more about this um this is

A list of longdistance foot paths in the UK oh okay um but uh National Trails are a network of long distance pass in England Welles plus a small stretch the P9 way in Scotland funded by Natural England and natural resources Wells and maintain huh interesting so natural resources England natural

Resources Wells funds these National Trails but also a little bit of small stretch in Scotland uh the longest trail the England Coastal path not complete though more sections are planned to open over the coming months and years with the plan completion dat around 2024 newest Trail is the coast to coast W

Which officially open 2025 there are 83 million visits to the National Trail system each year and over 880,000 people complete a trail wow all right so look at that dude that was beautiful M the paay surface of the pan way on Black Hill ah okay here we go uh uh 110 miles

Wow 102 miles 197 miles Coast to Coast Coast to Coast walk how long is the Appalachian Trail 2000 oh okay like really long yeah it goes from Georgia to Maine so it’s it’s fair Long Trail and what was the mountain to the Sea Trail do you know I

Don’t remember how long that and then there’s uh what you call it trail out west that was the longest one in the US it goes from it goes from Pacific crust yeah Pacific it literally goes from the me border to the uh Canadian wow border

Uh or close very close to okay just goz walk whoa the England coast path 2795 miles will cover the entire coast of England and we’ll be the longest managed and way Mar Coastal path in the world that is crazy in the world in the world wow I’ve looked at the hrias wall

Path uh that’s that’s one of the only PA I think that’s the only path I’ve really looked at that specifically really cool you do you know anything about the Hadrian Wall um isn’t that where the Sycamore cap that was long it yeah yeah that’s about all I know we still have

The uh Sycamore Gap magnet that tree and a magnet on our for yeah I I relate to trees that’s not what this video is about but I I love trees man trees are one of my favorite things and it’s just so sad when someone chops down a tree for no reason but um

But especially when not symbolic but P9 way 267 wow is southwest coast path so that’s uh Somerset Dorset is route for the Coast Guard to walk from Lighthouse to Lighthouse o I bet so many of these Trails such an interesting history yeah I bet it would be beautiful to walk them guys

Incredible yeah um oh Scotland great Trails you know some of these are some of these are obviously too long to do if you got a short period of time but some of these potentially you could do in a you know couple days I mean really if you’re going fast enough I mean someone

Could get done with this Trail in about a day 24 miles um yeah these are longer but uh definitely would like to do some of the shorter ones um yeah guys I I I can totally appreciate this because you know they they do have national parks but

There’s just less of the less land Less open land because obviously you’re on an island you know um so something like um something like the the foot path give people the ability to get into nature and I can totally totally respect that because it is a need um you know too

Many people nowadays you know don’t get out in nature at all um you know I used to go hiking so much used to love it and and since I moved to Indiana really having something I want to get back into um you know it’s something I loved it

Used to be such a passion of mine and it still is It’s just sometimes you know how it is with passions you you let your passions go and um something I need to get back into yeah but uh guys incredible let us know what you think

About the foot path system do you use it um do you what do you what do uh I I’m really curious what private land owners think about this in general I I’m guessing that when you go and buy a piece of land and you know there some

Pass on it I’m guessing you’re like cool with it because I mean or at least new neutral cuz neutral yeah you’re choosing to buy right yeah right I I I don’t it depends on like if it was a big piece of land and I had plenty of room I’d

Probably be open to having a foot path on my land but if I had a smaller piece and they’re like walking right past my house you know in my yard basically I don’t know how I’d feel about that but if you go and buy it then I mean you

Know what do you you know what you’re expecting so um but yeah guys you have anything you want to add no we’ve said at all I know anyway hopefully our voice are going to get better in the next little bit my voice is good except when

I’m like get higher pitched I guess or when I start getting really excited as you can start hearing right now but uh yeah guys thank you so much for stopping by please click that like button feel free to drop your comments or suggestions about this video or others

And don’t forget to subscribe to continue to follow us on our journey to discover our British and Irish ancestry till next time guys peace bye