Why the Countryside Code Matters

Britain's countryside is a working landscape, not a theme park. The field you cross is someone's livelihood, the wood beside it is home to deer, badgers and nesting birds, and the path under your boots may have been walked for centuries. The Countryside Code is simply a short set of common-sense promises that keeps that balance intact, so farmers can farm, wildlife can thrive and everyone can enjoy the outdoors safely.

It comes down to three ideas: respect other people, protect the natural environment, and enjoy the outdoors. The detail matters, though, so here is what the Code means in practice on a typical day out.

Plan Ahead and Stick to the Path

Before setting off, check that your route follows a public right of way. Footpaths, bridleways and byways are marked on good maps and in walking guides, and on the ground they are waymarked with coloured arrows, usually yellow for footpaths, blue for bridleways and purple or red for byways open to vehicles.

Stay on the path even when it is muddy, overgrown or longer than the shortcut across a field. Trampling crops, wildflower meadows or freshly sown ground costs the farmer money and disturbs ground-nesting birds. If a path is genuinely blocked or a stile is broken, report it to the local highway authority rather than inventing your own way round.

A little preparation makes the whole day better:

• Wear footwear suited to mud, stony tracks and sudden showers.
• Carry water, a charged phone and a paper map, as signal is patchy in valleys and on moorland.
• Tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back.
• Check tide times and sunset if your walk follows the coast.

Gates, Walls and Livestock

Leave gates and property as you find them. If a gate is closed, close it behind you; if it is open, leave it open. A gate left swinging can let a herd onto a road or into a neighbour's crop, and a gate closed across a right of way can block other walkers.

Cross fences and hedges only at a stile, gate or gap. Climbing walls and barbed wire damages stonework and clothing in equal measure, and squeezing through a hedge creates a gap that livestock will find. If you are walking through a field with animals in it, move calmly and quietly, keep well clear, and never get between a cow and her calf. In the unlikely event that cattle chase you, let go of your dog and walk steadily away. Always give horses a wide berth and a quiet voice.

Keeping Dogs Under Effective Control

Effective control means your dog responds to your voice and stays where you can see it. That does not always mean a lead, but it does mean being ready to clip one on within seconds.

Some places require a lead by law. On open access land between 1 March and 31 July, dogs must be on a lead of no more than two metres to protect ground-nesting birds such as curlew, lapwing and skylark. Near livestock, on or beside a public path, keep your dog on a short lead at any time of year. Sheep in particular are easily worried, and a dog that chases them can cause injury and serious distress.

Clear up after your dog, bag it and bin it. Bags left hanging in hedgerows or dropped at the base of a tree are litter, not good intentions. Never leave a dog tied up and unattended, and keep it away from waterfowl, nesting sites and other people's picnics.

Leave No Trace

Whatever you carry in, carry out. That includes apple cores, banana skins and sandwich crusts, which take months to break down and attract vermin.

• Take litter home, including dog waste bags if there is no bin nearby.
• Light no fires and use no disposable barbecues. They scorch the ground and start wildfires on heath and moorland.
• Leave wildflowers, rocks, fossils and fallen wood exactly where they are.
• Keep to established paths on fragile ground such as peat bog, sand dunes and chalk downland.
• Follow local guidance on toileting well away from paths and watercourses.

Small things add up. A picked bluebell will not grow back, and a patch of burnt heather may take decades to recover.

Be Considerate of Others and of Wildlife

Villages and country lanes are places where people live and work. Park so you do not block gateways, farm entrances, passing places or narrow verges, and drive slowly on lanes where walkers, cyclists and horses share the road. Slow right down, give horses plenty of room and pass quietly. Greet people you meet, keep noise down, and remember that a cheerful hello is part of the pleasure of the day.

Give wildlife space too. Use binoculars rather than creeping closer to deer, keep well back from seals and nesting seabirds on the coast, and never feed livestock, ducks or swans. At dawn and dusk in particular, disturbance can push animals away from feeding or resting grounds they depend on.

Follow these habits and you will leave the countryside exactly as you found it, still working, still wild, still a pleasure for the next person through the gate.