Landowner who lost fight to ban ramblers may appeal

Published on Thursday 24 April 2008 22:25

A MILLIONAIRE landowner who lost his battle to ban ramblers from his 70-acre Scottish estate may appeal against the court ruling, it was revealed yesterday.

Euan Snowie, 39, the owner of a waste-management firm and laird of the Boquhan estate near Kippen, Stirlingshire, took the Ramblers' Association and Stirling Council to court in a landmark challenge to Scotland's right-to-roam legislation.

Mr Snowie and his wife, Claire, called for walkers, cyclists and horse-riders to be excluded from 40 acres of land surrounding their home, Boquhan House, because of concerns for their family's safety.

But in a judgment issued on Wednesday, Sheriff Andrew Cubie ruled that a 15-acre area surrounding the house was sufficient to protect the family, and that access rights should be maintained on the driveways and wooded parts of the estate.

A locked gate that prevented access along a route into the estate will also have to be opened up.

Sheriff Cubie's judgment was hailed as a major victory for right-to-roam access campaigners, led by the Ramblers' Association in Scotland.

But yesterday a spokeswoman for the Snowies said the couple were considering all their options, including the possibility of appealing against the decision.

She said that, while the Snowies considered the judgment as "a step" towards clarifying some of the terms of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, they believed that some uncertainty remained.

The spokeswoman said: "They are still unsure about the exact tests which are to be applied to determine what the act requires to assess the extent of 'sufficient adjacent land to enable persons living in any house to have reasonable measures of privacy in that house, and to ensure that their enjoyment of the house is not unreasonably disturbed'."