A High Court judge has overturned a ruling that had raised concerns for farmers who allow walkers on their private land.

The High Court has overturned a decision to award a hillwalker €40,000 for injuries she sustained when she fell on a boardwalk on the Wicklow Way.

The move has been welcomed by the IFA and the ICMSA, which said the court’s decision should ease the concerns of farmers about people walking on their land.

Mr Justice Michael White dismissed the damages claim by Teresa Wall for €40,000.

She had sued the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), which placed the boardwalk on the lands.

Wall claimed she tripped and fell after her foot had caught in a hole in one of the old railway sleepers that made up a boardwalk on the Sally Gap-to-Djouce trail near Roundwood in Co Wicklow.

In 2016, Circuit Court judge Jacqueline Linnane found the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which placed the boardwalk on the lands, to be negligent. She ordered the NPWS to pay Wall €40,000 damages.

In its High Court appeal, the NPWS had argued that Wall contributed to her injuries by not looking where she was going.

On Friday, the High Court found there was “high degree of negligence” on the walker’s part in that “she was not looking at the surface of the boardwalk when she fell”.