At the end of this month, the Countryside and Rights of Way Act will finally apply to the whole of England and Wales. But as the public are granted access rights in the last two regions to be covered by the Act – the East and West of England - a leading firm of property agents are warning that many would-be ramblers are still very confused about where they can and cannot go.

The problems start with the name of the Act itself, according to James Bridgland of Strutt & Parker. “The name reinforces an already widespread misapprehension among the general public that they now enjoy unfettered access to all parts of the countryside and are free to wander where and when they like. But that is simply not true,” says Mr Bridgland.

What the Act does give walkers, he explains – and it is only walkers, not cyclists or horse-riders - is right of access to “open country”, areas of land, defined by their topography, geology and the vegetation growing there. The most common types are mountain, moor, heath and downland, together with registered common land.

Under the terms of the Act, some 1.3 million acres of land has been defined as open country, with access also being granted to a further 900,000 acres of registered common.

Inevitably, defining what is and isn’t open country has been a long and, at times, painful process for landowners, in some cases lasting anything up to five years.

“Landowners in some parts of the country saw the Draft Maps of their region as early as 2000,” explains Mr Bridgland. “That was the first chance they got to discover whether parts of their land had been classified as “open country” by the Countryside Agency. They could then appeal against land they felt had been wrongly classified.”

Once the appeals were heard, a Provisional Map was published for each region, followed by yet another round of appeals, often over land that hadn’t been classified as open country on the Draft Map but had by the time the Provisional Map appeared. “There’s no doubt that for some landowners, it was time-consuming and expensive process,” says Mr Bridgland.

But the potential for confusion is still with us, he warns, despite the fact that the Countryside Agency has now published definitive Conclusive Maps for all parts of England and Wales.

“The next problem is that the only maps readily available to walkers, clearly showing the new “open country”, are the Ordnance Survey’s latest 1:25,000 Explorer range.”

“The Ordnance Survey has been working overtime to get these new maps out and I’m sure really dedicated ramblers will make sure they are properly equipped with them. But the reality is that most people re-use their old maps over and over again, so they won’t have a clue what is and isn’t open country.”

But, amazingly, even a walker with a brand new Explorer Map, which shows “open country” as a yellow shaded area bounded by a narrow line of orange, will still face problems.

“This is where it gets really complicated,” warns Mr Bridgland. “The first problem is that the owner of an area of “open country” is legally entitled to restrict access, even close it, for up to 28 days a year and even longer if there are extenuating circumstances and a proper application has been made.”

“The only way of checking whether access to a particular site has been restricted is by checking on the Countryside Agency’s websites and I can’t see many recreational walkers going to that sort of trouble.”

The second problem is that some of the land shown as “open country” on the conclusive maps isn’t actually open at all, ever. “So called ‘excepted land” ,” explains Mr Bridgland, “is land that meets the general requirements to be classified as ‘open country’ but is ‘excepted’, normally for a reason that is readily apparent but, sometimes, only after representations have been made by the landowner.”

Excepted land will include parkland and gardens, land within 20 metres of a dwelling and land that has been ploughed or drilled within the last 12 months.

“In theory, it is a perfectly sensible idea but, in practice, because most excepted land will appear as open country on the maps, the potential for conflict between landowner and walker is considerable.”

Mr Bridgland hopes ramblers will exercise their new access rights with care and consideration. “Following the Countryside Code – shutting gates, taking home your litter etc – is absolutely vital but so is a little appreciation of the problems that landowners have faced and continue to face.”

“They’re worried about how walkers will behave, who will be responsible for enforcement if they don’t behave and which party is liable in the event of an accident happening. So I do hope walkers will act considerately as they exercise their new rights.”