Adair v National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty [1998] NI 33
In this case the plaintiff claimed a declaration that he was entitled to collect winkles, 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 defendant, the National Trust, between low and high water marks both for the purpose of personal consumption and for commercial fishing purposes.
Pursuant to the powers vested in it by the National Trust Act 1907 and the National Trust Act (Northern Ireland) 1946 the National Trust has made bye-laws designed to protect those areas vested in it. Bye-law 9 provides -- "(a) No unauthorised person shall on Trust property knowingly take, molest or wilfully disturb, injure or destroy any living creature or the eggs of any living creature or spread or use any net or set or use any snare or other engine, instrument, lamp, lure or other means for the taking, injury or destruction of any such living creature or its eggs whether in on or above Trust property."
The plaintiff contended that there was a common law right for the public to fish in tidal waters and that there was a common law right to collect shell-fish from the foreshore between high and low water marks.
Girvan J Held: "At common law there is a public right to take fish from the tidal waters around the Kingdom. Thus the plaintiff as a member of the public at common law is entitled as of right to gather fish from the area of Strangford Lough under water. There is a common law right vested in the members of the public to take shell-fish from the foreshore and that this is an incident of the public right to fish. In the circumstances the Court will grant a declaration that the plaintiff is at common law entitled as a member of the public to collect winkles and/or whelks from the waters and bed of Strangford Lough."
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