The following sorts of land are not access land under the Act.

Land that

• has been disturbed by any ploughing or drilling during the previous 12 months for planting or sowing;
• is covered by buildings (or the curtilage of such land);
• is within 20 metres of a dwelling or a permanent building used for housing livestock;
• is used as a park or garden;
• is used for getting of minerals (including quarrying);
• is used for railways and some other statutory functions (like telecommunications);
• is used for golf courses, racecourses, aerodromes;
• is covered by pens in use for temporary holding of stock;
• is used habitually for horse training;
• is regulated by military byelaws.

Note that in some cases excepted land will be shown as access land on OS maps, perhaps because the reason for it being excepted land is temporary (eg. temporary pens, due to recent ploughing) or because it is too small an area to be separately marked on the map. For this reason you need to understand what excepted land is and look out for it on the ground or shown on information signs.

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