TheFox wrote:I think it's perfectly reasonable. In most parts of the world private land is considered private, and as such the owners have any right to use it exclusively and don't need to let others pass over it.
Scottish people (and the people of a select few other countries) are very privileged in having legislation in place that makes it legal for them to walk pretty much everywhere they please, with the provision that it's not right past someone's window/through someone's front- or backyard. As such the owner in question should have any right to request/demand that people don't walk right past a building on his own land that he is staying in a considerable amount of time. It's HIS land. Plus the detour seems to be only a couple hundred metres.
Yeah, if the path is a public right of way, technically the land owner would be in the wrong, but so what? Respect people's privacy ...
Worldwide it's recognised that land ownership is not absolute, but subservient to the laws and needs of the nation. Land owners have the privileges accorded to them by the nation they own land in. Some nations accord very expansive privileges, others (like Scotland) rather less.
Personally, I think Scotland has a nice balance of owner rights/privileges and public rights/privileges. I wouldn't support your view that an owner's demands should be paramount - that's a mindset I don't subscribe to.