Adair v National Trust
| Jurisdiction | Northern Ireland |
| Judgment Date | 01 January 1998 |
| Date | 01 January 1998 |
| Court | Chancery Division (Northern Ireland) |
- Fishing rights -Public right to fish - Ancillary rights - Right to take shell-fish from unexposed foreshore when tide was out - Whether common law right to take shell-fish from foreshore incident of public right to fish - Digging for worms on foreshore - Whether digging for worms permitted as ancillary to right to fish - Purposes for which digging on foreshore permitted - Whether right extended to digging for worms on commercial basis.
The plaintiff, a fish merchant, collected shell-fish and dug lugworms for onward sale from the foreshore and sea at Strangford Lough which was owned in part by the National Trust. Pursuant to the powers vested in it by the National Trust Act, 1907, and the National Trust Act (Northern Ireland), 1946, the National Trust had made bye-laws designed to protect the areas vested in it. Bye-law 9 precluded unauthorised persons from knowingly taking, injuring or destroying any living creature or using any net therefor. Bye-law 24 provided that the rights of any person acting legally were not to be affected by, inter alia, bye-law 9. The plaintiff claimed a declaration that he was entitled to collect periwinkles, whelks and worms from the waters and bed of Strangford Lough below the low water mark and that part of the foreshore owned by the National Trust, between low and high water marks both for the purpose of personal consumption and for commercial fishing purposes. He contended: (i) that there was a common law right for the public to fish in tidal waters; (ii) that there was a common law right to collect shell-fish from the foreshore between high and low water marks; (iii) that there was an ancillary right to take worms from the foreshore; and, (iv) that, if he did not have a common law right to take shell-fish or worms from the foreshore, then, as a member of the 'fishing community of County Down', he had a customary right to do so. In opposing the plaintiff's claim the National Trust did not seriously challenge the plaintiff's right to take shell-fish from the tidal waters of Strangford Lough although it did adduce ecological evidence as to the threat of depletion of stocks of shell-fish and worms caused by fishing and to the impact that such a depletion would have on the nature chain. It contended: (i) that there was no binding or clear authority to support the proposition that a member of the public had a common law right to take shell-fish from the foreshore when the tide was out...
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- Adair v National Trust
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Isle of Anglesey and Others v The Welsh Ministers and Others
...in tidal waters, which may extend to shellfish such as mussels (see the useful discussion of the authorities in Adair v National Trust [1998] NI 33, per Girvan J). He commented: “I can see no reason why such a right should not have existed with regard to these tidal waters immediately befor......
- Commonwealth v Yarmirr