The Squeeze: Roseberry Topping’s Disappearing Footpath

Climbing Roseberry Topping ought to be one of the simple joys in life. Not on this stretch. Here it is a “stinging” ordeal, and no mistake.

A modern post-and-wire fence runs alongside a maturing line of hedge saplings, squeezed in next to the old boundary. They were planted a few years back. The result now is a corridor of thigh-high nettles, bramble stems and general undergrowth. Wear shorts at your peril.

So whose fault is it? Not as murky as you would think. A landowner has a plain legal duty to keep a right of way unobstructed. Overgrowth spilling in from the sides, the sort strangling this path, is down to them, not the council, not the park rangers, not the weather.

The North York Moors National Park Authority carries its own share, mind. Vegetation growing on the surface of the path is their job to manage apparently. So if the nettles are underfoot as well as pressing in from both sides, blame is not a solo act. It takes two to make a path this miserable. But, as the path was gravelled at the time, I suspect encroachment is from the sides rather than the surface.

Either way, summer is when this sort of neglect shows itself worst, and a route left to run wild for months stops being a path and starts being an assault course. Call it what it is.

Squeeze a path down to nothing and dress it in “weeds”, and you have quietly shut it to anyone with a pushchair, a bad hip, or simply a sensible dislike of nettle rash. Access is not a favour handed out in fair weather. It is owed, every month of the year, to everyone who wants to use it.

Sources

• Active Travel England. “Rural Design Guide.” GOV.UK, July 2026, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a58dad2908b618a53702f0e/active-travel-england-rural-design-guide.pdf.
• Chapman, Alex, et al. “Who Has a Public Right of Way?” New Economics Foundation & The Ramblers, 2022, https://new-economicsf.files.svdcdn.com/production/files/Who-has-a-public-right-of-way_web.pdf?dm=1694013806.