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South Ayrshire

Outdoor Access

Scottish Outdoor Access Code

The Scottish Outdoor Access Code gives detailed guidance on the responsibilities when exercising access rights and on those who manage land and inland water.

The key principles for responsible access are:

  • Respect the interest of other people;
  • Care for the environment; and
  • Take responsibilities for your own action

The complete code can be accessed here.

Using Inland Water Responsibly

The Paths For All Partnership is a national charity promoting walking for health and the development of multi-use path networks.

It provides best practice advice and support to those involved in providing or taking outdoor public access. It has recently published Using Inland Water Responsibly: Guidance for All Water Users.

This guidance is intended to assist all water users to share inland water in Scotland in such a way that the interests of all are considered and respected. The Guidance aims to demonstrate how the different interests of water users can be responsibly, proactively and positively integrated. It is hoped that commercial and educational guides, coaches and instructors (canoeing, sailing, rafting etc), riparian owners, fishing proprietors or their agents, fishing associations, ghillies etc, who regularly use inland water (lochs, rivers, canals and reservoirs) with clients, will brief them on the good practice guidelines in this document. It is also hoped that clubs and individuals will follow this guidance.

The guidance may be found at:

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