The right to roam the countryside—law and reality concerning public access to the landscape in Denmark

Over the years the legal regulation of public access to the Danish countryside has undergone continued changes to improve public access opportunities. An investigation in four study areas illustrates that improvements in the legal regulation are not necessarily answered by parallel improvements in the concrete physical access opportunities. Danish legislation grants public access to field roads and to uncultivated areas, if these are unfenced. During the second half of the 20th century, the amount of field roads in the study areas has been reduced severely and so have the sizes of bogs, meadows and moors, which are the landscape elements typically covered by the law. The result is a fragmentation of the formerly dense road grid restraining the possibilities of the public to hike through the countryside and lawfully reach uncultivated areas. A strong respect towards the rights of private ownership sets quite firm limits to the safeguarding of public interests. The improvement of public access opportunities may, therefore, call for a rethinking of who owns what in the countryside.