Patrick Galbraith: Dukes, drug dealers, nudists, and the truth about access to Britain's countryside

Should we have a right to roam? It's something that we've talked about a fair bit at Country Life in recent times — not least with our articles from opposing sides of the argument from Alexander Darwall and Lewis Winks.

Rather than just listen and read, Patrick the author and journalist Patrick Galbraith decided to travel the length and breadth of Britain to discover for himself what access really means — and what it's really like at the moment.

Coming in to contact with everyone from county lines drug dealers to nudists who happily petted his dog, Patrick discovered that the truth is far more complex than it might seem at first — and that a lot of what you think you know about land rights is almost certainly wrong. He joined James Fisher on the Country Life Podcast to talk about what he discovered, and how it spurred him to write his latest book, Uncommon Ground: Rethinking our relationship with the countryside, which is published in April 2025 (William Collins, £22).

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This episode is Patrick's second appearance on the Country Life Podcast; you can listen to his first, in which he recounts his adventures living on an uninhabited island, here.

Episode credits

Host: James Fisher 

Guest: Patrick Galbraith 

Produced and edited by: Toby Keel 

Music: ‘Summertime’ by JuliusH 

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