A Working Landscape, Not a Film Set

The best countryside walks in Britain rarely pass through empty land. They thread between sheep pastures, cut the corner of a barley field and follow a bank where the water is fenced off for very good reason. That patchwork is somebody's living, and it is also a habitat. Walking responsibly is not about tiptoeing about apologetically; it is about knowing what you are passing through and behaving accordingly.

Happily, the habits that protect farmland, grazing animals and fragile riverbanks are simple, and they usually make for a better walk rather than a more anxious one. You notice more, you disturb less, and you leave the place as you found it.

Gates, Stiles and Leaving Things as You Found Them

Farmers do not open and shut gates for decoration. An open gate can move a herd onto a road or into a field of young crops within minutes, and a gate left swinging in the wind soon stops shutting at all.

• Leave every gate as you find it — shut if it was shut, open if it was open. Some gates are deliberately left open for water access or machinery, so do not "helpfully" close them.
• Use the stiles and kissing gates provided rather than climbing walls or fences, which loosens stonework and snaps wire.
• Do not prop a gate open for the rest of your group. Hold it, or hand it over to the next person along.
• Cross stiles carefully with a dog. Lift small dogs; where there is a gap, send the lead through first and call the dog across — but only when you can see there is no livestock in the next field.
• Close gates quietly. Slamming one is a good way to spook cattle standing nearby.

Dogs and Livestock: Keeping Everyone Safe

Under the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953, it is an offence for a dog to worry livestock in England, Wales and Scotland. Worrying covers chasing as well as biting, and a single spooked flock can mean injured sheep, lost lambs and a great deal of distress. Farmers are also legally entitled to act if a dog is worrying their animals, which is reason enough to keep the lead clipped on.

• Put the dog on a short lead whenever livestock are in the same field, however calm and distant they look.
• Give ewes with lambs and cows with calves a wide berth — both are far more defensive than a field of dry sheep.
• Never let a dog bark at, circle or "herd" cattle. It is not play; it is a threat display to a half-tonne animal.
• If cattle come towards you, let the dog off the lead and walk steadily and calmly to the nearest exit. A loose dog can get out of the way; a dog on a lead cannot, and you can end up caught between the two. Do not run.
• Report any incident — an injured animal, a worried flock, a gate you could not shut — to the farmer or landowner as soon as you can.

Crops, Verges and the Growing Season

A field of wheat is a crop, not a meadow. Walking through it flattens stems, knocks back yield and leaves a trail that other walkers follow, widening the damage with every pair of boots.

• Follow the marked line and keep to the field margin or headland where the path allows.
• Do not cut corners across the crop. What starts as one muddy footprint becomes a permanent scar.
• Keep dogs close from late spring to midsummer. Skylarks, lapwings and yellowhammers nest in crops and rough grass, and a dog quartering the field will find them long before you do.
• If a crop blocks the path and there is no way round, you can report it to your local council's rights-of-way officer. Growers are expected to keep paths clear, but a polite word usually sorts it far faster.
• Do not pick from hedgerows beyond a handful for eating, and never dig up wild plants.

Rivers, Banks and Fragile Waterside Habitats

A riverbank is often held together by the very plants we walk on. Trampled margins crumble into the water, silt smothers gravel beds, and fish and invertebrates lose the habitat they depend on.

• Stick to the established path rather than widening it or taking a "better" line closer to the water.
• Keep dogs out of sensitive stretches. Spawning gravels matter in winter, nesting waterfowl in spring, and blue-green algae in summer can be fatal to dogs in minutes.
• Do not move stones or build dams and cairns. What looks like harmless fun disturbs spawning beds and the insects fish feed on.
• Watch for fishing line, hooks and broken glass, particularly where dogs swim.
• Take everything home — including dog waste bags, which seem to be left hanging in trees as though they might compost there.

Planning Ahead and Being a Welcome Guest

Most of this comes down to preparation and courtesy. Check your route on an Ordnance Survey map or your council's rights-of-way map before you set out, and read any notices pinned to gates, as diversions for lambing or shooting are usually temporary.

• Park considerately — never blocking field gates, farm tracks or passing places.
• Keep noise down near livestock and riverside wildlife.
• Take a poo bag even if your dog has never needed one on a walk before. Sheep and cattle pick up disease from dog mess, and it is a genuine cause of lost pregnancies.
• Support the places you walk through — a village shop, a pub, a farm café. Access survives on goodwill as much as law.

Do these small things and you will be the sort of walker landowners are glad to see: someone who shuts the gate, keeps the dog to heel and leaves the riverbank exactly as they found it. That is what keeps footpaths open and friendships with farmers intact for the next generation of walkers.