A special place Victory in the battle for wild camping on Dartmoor is a win for freedom

Birdsong and the gurgle of water over boulders woke me at dawn. The spring sun was not yet visible, but its pale yellow light caught the tops of the steep valley where I had spent the night. I was completely alone with my thoughts.

- Tom Wall

This was an uncommodifiable moment of peace in nature of the kind that has been under threat ever since the owner of the land where I pitched my tent began legal action two years ago in an attempt to curtail the right for backpackers to camp on Dartmoor.

Alexander Darwall, a multimillionaire hedge fund manager, and his wife, Diana Darwall, claimed wild camping was hurting their conservation efforts and putting cattle at risk on their 1,619-hectare (4,000-acre) estate on the moorland's southern edges.

But this week the supreme court rejected Darwall's lawyers' argument that the act giving the public access to Dartmoor for "open air recreation" referred only to walking and horse riding. The three judges ruled that recreation should be understood far more widely, and include wild camping.

This ruling means Dartmoor remains the only place in England where it is legal to wild camp without a landowner's permission. I passed the Darwalls' grand home, Blachford Manor, on the tough three-hour walk up to the moor. Through a thick hawthorn hedge and barbed-wire fence, I caught glimpses of a shimmering fish pond and extensive deer park. But I didn't need to knock on his door and ask to camp on their open moorland: I just went ahead.

In Scotland, people can pitch their tents where they please provided they do not stray on to enclosed land, such as fields of crops. In England it is different.

Reed, has ruled out the idea.

"Our intention is to increase access to the countryside, but in a responsible way, not as a free-for-all," he said.